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autism acceptance month | 50+ autistic book recommendations

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April is Autism Acceptance Month which means time for book recommendations!!

Or Autism Awareness Month if you prefer! I personally feel we need both acceptance and awareness. While society has improved its understanding of autism in recent years, there is still a long, long way to go. Especially for media representation for autistics who are people of colour or trans or from a variety of cultures. But it’s definitely nice to see more autism books coming out from actually autistic voices!!

But we still need more autistic books. And we need more support of the autistic books that are published right now, so please remember that buying, reading, and talking about autistic books = tells publishers we want more. Autistic voices are categorically silenced across history, and that needs to change. As an autistic author, I’m super passionate about this and want more of my autistic books published. My second book, The Boy Who Steals Houses, features two autistic brothers (though Sam isn’t labelled on page, he is autistic too!), and okay but I have so many plans for more stories. 😭

So onto the list!!!

This is not an exhaustive list and I haven’t read them all, but I’ve reached out to the autistic community for recommendations too and hopefully this is a list of quality literature and good representation. I’ve been super burned by harmful and poor rep before, so I’m very cautious these days. But this list?! This list has me so very excited.

#Ownvoices autistic authors will be indicated with a ⭐️.

my instagram post of autistic book recs | my twitter thread of community recs

AUTISTIC BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

2023 AUTISTIC BOOK RELEASES

  • TILLY IN TECHNICOLOR by Magzey Eddings — Contemporary YA about two neurodivergent teens who form a connection over the course of a summer. Oliver is autistic. August 15, 2023 | Goodreads
  • A PRAYER FOR VENGEANCE by Leanne Schwartz — YA Fantasy about a living statue hunts the autistic boy who woke her. September 19, 2023 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • THE SPIRIT BARES ITS TEETH by Andrew Joseph White — YA Horror about an autistic trans boy must escape the cruel finishing school and rotten guts to the world. September 5, 2023 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • SOMETHING MORE by by Jackie Khalilieh — Contemporary YA about a Palestinian-Canadian girl trying to hide her autism while navigating high school. June 6, 2023 | Goodreads ⭐️

  • THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS by Jen Wilde — YA Thriller about an autistic teen surviving a fateful night at an elite private school’s epic masquerade ball. May 9, 2023 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • THE LUIS ORTEGA SURVIVAL CLUB by Sonora Reyes — YA contemporary about autistic Ariana Ruiz and an unlikely group of students determined to expose a predator. May 23, 2023 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • THE FIRE, THE WATER, AND MAUDIE MCGINN by Sally J. Pla — An autistic teen wrestles with hiding her autism while wildfires strike and she evacuates with her dad. July 11, 2023 | Goodreads
  • FREYA HARTE IS NOT A PUZZLE by Méabh Collins — YA contemporary about an autistic teen learning to accept herself despite society’s view of her autism. March 6, 2023 | Goodreads

  • IZZY AT THE END OF THE WORLD by K.A. Reynolds — Middle Grade apocalypse story about an autistic girl surviving the end of the world with her loveable dog. February 21, 2023 | Goodreads
  • GOOD DIFFERENT by Meg Eden Kuyatt —  Middle Grade novel-in-verse about an autistic girl who comes to understand and celebrate her difference. March 7, 2023 | Goodreads
  • VIVI CONWAY AND THE SWORD OF LEGEND by Lizzie Huxley-Jones — Middle Grade fantasy about a girl who pulls Excalibur from a lake and must protect the world from being taken over by an evil king. June 1, 2023 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • TELL ME HOW IT ENDS by Quinton Li — Adult fantasy coming-of-age cozy with a queer cast, witches, and tarot, Legends & Lattes and Our Flag Means Death with an autistic main character. April 9, 2023 | Goodreads ⭐️

 

 

AUTISTIC YOUNG ADULT FANTASY

  • UNSEELIE by Ivelisse Housman — YA fantasy where twin sisters are on the one, one a rogue, the other an autistic fairy changeling. January 3, 2023 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • HELL FOLLOWED WITH US by Andrew Joseph White — YA dystopian horror about a trans boy on the run from the cult that raised him and aided by Nick, gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot. June 7, 2022 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • THE ART OF SAVING THE WORLD by Corinne Duyvis — YA Sci Fi about one girl and her doppelgangers try to stop the end of the world. September 15, 2020 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • LORD OF SHADOWS (#2) by Cassandra Clare — Shadowhunters installment with murder mystery and side autistic character with some POV chapters. May 23, 2017 | Goodreads

  • THE VENOMOUS TEMPEST by Sebastiaan Constantino van Doorn — YA fantasy where autistic teens start off an apprenticeship with the order of dragon hunters. August 16, 2022 | Goodreads
  • TRICK by Cara Cox — Shadowhunters meets Addie Larue where two mysterious strangers tell a college student she can turn back time. Autistic POV. June 1, 2023 | Goodreads

 

 

AUTISTIC YOUNG ADULT CONTEMPORARY

  • THE BOY WHO STEALS HOUSES by CG Drews — Aka yours truly!!! A Goldilocks retelling about two autistic house-stealing brothers who find a family. April 4, 2019 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • KIDS LIKE US by Hilary Reyl — An autistic boy spends summer in France and learns that he deserves love. November 14, 2017 | Goodreads 
  • SOCIAL QUEUE by Kay Kerr — An autistic teen starts an internship with a media company and begins writing about her love life. September 1, 2021 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • WHEN MY HEART JOINS THE THOUSAND by A.J. Steiger — An autistic girl falls in love with a a boy with brittle bone disease as they navigate their disabilities together. February 6, 2018 | Goodreads 

  • PETA LYRE’S RATING NORMAL by Anna Whateley — Queer autistic/adhd teen must decide which rules to keep, and which rules to break on a ski trip. April 28, 2020 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • AFROTISTIC by Kala Allen Omeiza — An autistic teen desperate to make it in the society creates her own group consisting of autistic students. April 2, 2022 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • EVEN IF WE BREAK by Marieke Nijkamp — YA contemporary thriller about a group of friends tied together by a game and the deadly weekend that tears them apart, one of the narrators being autistic. September 15, 2020 | Goodreads ⭐️

 

 

AUTISTIC MIDDLE GRADE CONTEMPORARY & FANTASY

  • CAN YOU SEE ME by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westscott — Trilogy about an autistic tween starts highschool and it’s also co-written by an actually autistic teen author. May 2, 2019 | Goodreads
  • A KIND OF SPARK by Elle McNicoll — An autistic girl campaigns for a memorial when she learns that her small Scottish town used to burn witches simply because they were different. June 4, 2020 | Goodreads
  • THE MANY MYSTERIES OF THE FINKEL FAMILY by Sarah Kapit — Two autistic sisters, their detective agency, and life’s most consequential mysteries. March 23, 2021 | Goodreads
  • ELLEN OUTSIDE THE LINES by A.J. Sass — An autistic 13yonavigating changing friendships, a school trip, and expanding horizons. March 22, 2022 | Goodreads

  • THE SOMEDAY BIRDS by Sally J. Pla — An autistic 12 year old takes a cross-country roadtrip with his rowdy and chaotic family while trying to spot birds that his wounded father wanted to see. January 24, 2017 | Goodreads
  • MASTERS AND BEGINNERS by Daley Downing — A family takes over running a warehouse that stores magical artefacts and documents proving, and protecting, the existence of faeries. August 21, 2017 | Goodreads
  • DEAR MOTHMAN by Robin Gow — Middle-grade novel in verse about a young trans boy dealing with the loss of his friend by writing to his favourite cryptid. March 21, 2023 | Goodreads
  • SPEAK UP by Rebecca Burgess — Middle Grade graphic novel about an autistic girl who finds friendship where she least expects it and learns to express her true self. January 1, 2022 | Goodreads

 

 

AUTISTIC ADULT SPEC FIC

  • AN UNKINDNESS OF GHOSTS by Rivers Solomon — Adult Sci Fi where Aster learns there may be a way off the corrupt ship if she’s willing to fight for it. September 18, 2017 | Goodreads
  • THE DEATH OF JANE LAWRENCE by Caitlin Starling — Adult gothic horror where mathematical autistic woman marries for convenience and finds her new husband has a darkly haunted estate. October 5, 2021 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • MAZARIN BLUES by Al Hess — Adult Queer Sci Fi where the protagonist grapples with ridding himself of intrusive technology vs the morality of hurting his self-aware AI. November 1, 2022 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • SEVEN DEVILS by L.R. Lam and Elizabeth May  — Adult Sci Fi about a group of women who possess the knowledge and capabilities to bring the empire to its knees, one of the POV characters is autistic. August 4, 2020 | Goodreads

  • LESSER KNOWN MOSNTERS by Rory Michaelson — An adult queer fantasy with found family and monsters and romance, for fans of horror and paranormal. October 31, 2020 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • THE REANIMATOR’S HEART by Alice Jorgensen — Adult fantasy with a reluctant autistic necromancer, a man killed before his time, and the crime that brings them together. October 25, 2022 | Goodreads 
  • JUNKER SEVEN by Olive J. Kelley — A romantic, queer sci-fi epic about changing the galaxy, one girl at a time with an autistic protagonist. June 13, 2023 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • GUARDIANS OF MASKS AND MEMORY by Jessica Mack — A fantasy about an amnesiac lost princess named Maleda finds that she has a life and homeland beyond the desert that is threatened by a curse and an unknown murderer. September 21, 2021 | Goodreads ⭐️

 

 

AUTISTIC ADULT CONTEMPORARY & ROMANCE & POETRY

  • ALL THE THINGS WE DON’T TALK ABOUT by Amy Feltman — Adult literary about an autistic father raising his nonbinary teen and the addict mother who crashes in and out of their life. May 24, 2022 | Goodreads
  • EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE by Jonathan Safran Foer — Adult literary in the wake of 9/11, nine-year-old Oskar goes on a scavenger hunt across New York to try and understand his father’s death. January 1, 2005 | Goodreads
  • CARRY THE OCEAN by Heidi Cullinan — Adult M/M duology romance about an autistic man and his boyfriend with severe social anxiety and how they work toward independent living. April 7, 2015 | Goodreads
  • THE FLOWERS NEVER REALLY GREW by Jake Graham — Autistic poetry collection with illustrations by an autistic author. July 18, 2021 | Goodreads ⭐️ 

  • ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN (#3) by Talia Hibbert — Adult romcom where the flightiest Brown sister crashes into the life of an uptight B&B owner, featuring two autistic protagonists. March 9, 2021 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • THE KISS QUOTIENT by Helen Hoang — Adult romcom trilogy where an autistic data entry mathematician hires an escort to teach her how to love and falls for him instead. June 5, 2018 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • ALWAYS ONLY YOU by Chloe Liese — Autistic romcom about a nerdy hockey star and his tough coworker who keeps both her soft side and her autism diagnosis to herself. August 4, 2020 | Goodreads ⭐️
  • THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON (#3) by India Holton — Two rival spies must brave pirates, witches, and fake matrimony to save the Queen. April 20, 2023 | Goodreads

 

 

AUTISTIC NONFICTION | ANTHOLOGIES AND MEMOIRS

   

  • LOVE & AUTISM by Kay Kerr — Memoir | Goodreads
  • UNMASKING AUTISM by Devon Price — Self Help | Goodreads
  • STIM ANTHOLOGY edited by Lizzie Huxley-Jones | Goodreads
  • AUTISM IN HEELS by Jennifer O’Toole — Memoir | Goodreads

  • CHANGELINGS AN AUTISTIC ANTHOLOGY edited by Ryan Vale | Goodreads
  • BE DIFFERENT by John Elder Robison — Memoir | Goodreads
  • NERDY, SHY, AND SOCIALLY INAPPROPRIATE by Cynthia Kim | Goodreads
  • AUTISTIC WORLD DOMINATION by Jolene Stockman — Self Help | Goodreads

 

 

AUTISTIC AUTHORS (CHARACTERS MAYBE NOT AUTISTIC)

  • TWELVE by Joan Marie Verba — A fantasy Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling with picturesque romance. August 2, 2022 | Goodreads 
  • WORLD RUNNING DOWN by Al Hess — Adult dystopian where a trans salvager risks his own dream in order to give the AI a chance to live theirs. February 14, 2023 | Goodreads 
  • A MAGE’S POWER by Casey Wolfe — An M/M Fantasy romance where Rowan and Shaw are entangled in each other’s worlds, it becomes evident that their hearts are as much at risk as their lives. July 16, 2018 | Goodreads
  • AGAINST THE STARS by Christopher Hartland — YA Sci Fi queer romance about a teen questioning his sexuality who gets to look into the future with a new technology. April 18, 2023 | Goodreads

Thank you for supporting this post and reading more autistic authors!

 

2023 New Book Releases You Definitely Need (Adult & Young Adult!) Part 1

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Let’s talk books, specifically — new books coming out in 2023!

Admittedly, this post is late since somehow it’s February and I meant to start posting about new releases in, like, January. But this year has been weirdly busy and I’ve turned into a creature who is constantly behind. Secretary wanted. My current one (dog) just naps. Will not swap places with me. Always rude??

This post will feature Young Adult & Adult books coming out from January to April! It isn’t an exhaustive list of course. This are ones that caught my eye, that I’m excited for.

Also with book prices being…exorbitant to say the least, I feel it’s fair to note that I will likely not get many of these books. 🤣 This post may be a lot of wishful thinking. (I refuse to pay $50 for a paperback. Australia!! Fix urself.)

All links go to Goodreads.

Title: The Stolen Heir by Holly Black
Release Date: January 3, 2023
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Had to put this one first even though I’m pretty sure we all know it exists. But SO excited to go back to Holly Black’s version of fairyland!!

A runaway queen. A reluctant prince. And a quest that may destroy them both.
Eight years have passed since the Battle of the Serpent. But in the icy north, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel. There, she is using an ancient relic to create monsters of stick and snow who will do her bidding and exact her revenge.
Suren, child queen of the Court of Teeth, and the one person with power over her mother, fled to the human world. There, she lives feral in the woods. Lonely, and still haunted by the merciless torments she endured in the Court of Teeth, she bides her time by releasing mortals from foolish bargains. She believes herself forgotten until the storm hag, Bogdana chases her through the night streets. Suren is saved by none other than Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, to whom she was once promised in marriage and who she has resented for years.
Now seventeen, Oak is charming, beautiful, and manipulative. He’s on a mission that will lead him into the north, and he wants Suren’s help. But if she agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust, as well as confronting all the horrors she thought she left behind.
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Title: A Ruinous Fate by Kaylie Smith
Release Date: January 3, 2023
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
I’m a sucker for chaos ensemble casts, and I’ve heard people say it’s a really fun one.

Fate does not choose the weak. Fate chooses the ready.
Calliope Rosewood is a witch with a long streak of bad luck. Like all witches in Illustros, her fate is directly tied to Witch’s Dice—powerful artifacts that have blessed her kind with limitless magic but also set them on a path toward destruction. Cursed with unspeakable powers that terrify even the most dangerous witches and fae, Calla deserted her coven four years ago and has been in hiding with her two best friends since. But Calla is also hiding a grave secret: She is only three Rolls away from becoming the last Blood Warrior and starting the Final War that will decimate her people and eradicate their magic.
After a betrayal from her ex leads her one step closer to fulfilling that age-old prophecy, Calla is desperate to do whatever it takes to reset her fate . . . even if that means journeying into the deadly Neverending Forest with said ex and his enticing, yet enigmatic older brother to find the one being who can help her forge her own path. As Calla ventures farther into the enchanted woods, she finds her heart torn between her past desires and the alluring new possibilities of her future and learns that choosing your own destiny may come with deadly consequences.
Featuring a charming and chaotic ensemble cast of characters, this first book in a planned series by debut author Kaylie Smith will sweep readers away with its utterly immersive world building, swoon-worthy romance, and action-packed storytelling.
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Title: Song Of Silver Flame, Like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao
Release Date: January 3, 2023
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Chinese folklore meets fantasy with demons!! It seems really beautiful.

In a fallen kingdom, one girl carries the key to discovering the secrets of her nation’s past—and unleashing the demons that sleep at its heart. An epic fantasy series inspired by the mythology and folklore of ancient China.
Once, Lan had a different name. Now she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and her days scavenging for what she can find of the past. Anything to understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother in her last act before she died.
The mark is mysterious—an untranslatable Hin character—and no one but Lan can see it. Until the night a boy appears at her teahouse and saves her life.
Zen is a practitioner—one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom. Their magic was rumored to have been drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Now it must be hidden from the Elantians at all costs.
When Zen comes across Lan, he recognizes what she is: a practitioner with a powerful ability hidden in the mark on her arm. He’s never seen anything like it—but he knows that if there are answers, they lie deep in the pine forests and misty mountains of the Last Kingdom, with an order of practitioning masters planning to overthrow the Elantian regime.
Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within—secrets they must hide from others, and secrets that they themselves have yet to discover. Fate has connected them, but their destiny remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And both hold the power to destroy the world.
Now the battle for the Last Kingdom begins.
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Title: City Of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer
Release Date: January 10, 2023
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Goodreads
I’m actually currently reading this and nearly at the end! It reminds me of This Savage Song, and the two main characters have a snappy relationship which is fun so far.

Gotham meets Strange the Dreamer in this thrilling young adult fantasy about a cowardly girl who finds herself at the center of a criminal syndicate conspiracy, in a city where crooked politicians and sinister cults reign and dreaming means waking up as your worst nightmare.
Ever since her sister became a man-eating spider and slaughtered her way through town, nineteen-year-old Ness has been terrified—terrified of some other Nightmare murdering her, and terrified of ending up like her sister. Because in Newham, the city that never sleeps and the only other home Ness has known, dreaming means waking up as your worst fear.
Whether that means becoming a Nightmare that is only monstrous in appearance but is otherwise able to live a semi-normal existence, to transforming into a twisted, unrecognizable creature that terrorizes the citizens of Newham, no one is safe. Ness will do anything to avoid becoming another victim, even if that means lying low among the Friends of the Restful Soul, a seedy organization that may or may not be a cult.
But being a member of the Friends of the Restful Soul has a price. In order to prove herself, Ness cons her way into what’s supposed to be a simple job for the organization—only for it to blow up in her face. Literally. Tangled up in the aftermath of an explosive assassination, Ness and the only other survivor—a Nightmare boy who Ness suspects is planning to eat her—must find their way back to Newham and uncover the sinister truth behind the attack.
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Title: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia Of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Release Date: January 10, 2023
Genre: Adult Historical Fiction Fantasy
Goodreads
Have just started reading this too and cannot say how much I love the premise of grumpy reclusive professor researches fairies!!

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.
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Title: Friday I’m In Love by Camryn Garrett
Release Date: January 10, 2023
Genre: YA LGBT Contemporary
Goodreads
This book looks so downright JOYFUL that I am so keen for it. I also really enjoyed the author’s debut!

It’s too late for a Sweet Sixteen but what if Mahalia had a Coming Out Party? A love letter to romantic comedies, sweet sixteen blowouts, black joy and queer pride.
Mahalia Harris wants.
She wants a big Sweet Sixteen like her best friend Naomi.
She wants the super cute new girl Siobhan to like her back.
She wants a break from worrying–about money, snide remarks from white classmates, pitying looks from church ladies . . . all of it.
Then inspiration strikes: It’s too late for a Sweet Sixteen, but what if she had a Coming Out Party? A singing, dancing, rainbow-cake-eating celebration of queerness on her own terms.
The idea lights a fire in her, and soon Mahalia is scrimping and saving, taking on extra hours at her afterschool job, trying on dresses, and awkwardly flirting with Siobhan, all in preparation for the Coming Out of her dreams. But it’s not long before she’s buried in a mountain of bills, unfinished schoolwork, and enough drama to make her English Lit teacher blush. With all the responsibility on her shoulders, will Mahalia’s party be over before it’s even begun?
A novel about finding yourself, falling in love, and celebrating what makes you you.
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Title: We Are All So Good At Smiling by Amber McBride
Release Date: January 10, 2023
Genre: YA Contemporary
Goodreads
I actually have this preordered but no one will ship my copy so SIGH. But it sounds and looks emotional and beautiful with mental health rep, my kind of book.

They Both Die at the End meets The Bell Jar in this haunting, beautiful young adult novel-in-verseabout clinical depression and healing from trauma, from National Book Award Finalist Amber McBride.
Whimsy is back in the hospital for treatment of clinical depression. When she meets a boy named Faerry, she recognizes they both have magic in the marrow of their bones. And when Faerry and his family move to the same street, the two start to realize that their lifelines may have twined and untwined many times before.
They are both terrified of the forest at the end of Marsh Creek Lane.
The Forest whispers to Whimsy. The Forest might hold the answers to the part of Faerry he feels is missing. They discover the Forest holds monsters, fairy tales, and pain that they have both been running from for 11 years.
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Title: The Things We Do To Our Friends by Heather Darwent
Release Date: January 10, 2023
Genre: Adult Dark Academia, Thriller
Goodreads
Dark academia with messed up characters doing terrible things!! Here for it. Also adore this cover.

She’s an outsider desperate to belong, but the cost of entry might be her darkest secret in this intoxicating debut of literary suspense following a clique of dangerously ambitious students at the University of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh, Scotland: a moody city of labyrinthine alleyways, oppressive fog, and buried history; the ultimate destination for someone with something to hide. Perfect for Clare, then, who arrives utterly alone and yearning to reinvent herself. And what better place to conceal the dark secrets in her past than at the university in the heart of the fabled, cobblestoned Old Town?
When Clare meets Tabitha, a charismatic, beautiful, and intimidatingly rich girl from her art history class, she knows she’s destined to be friends with her and her exclusive circle: raffish Samuel; shrewd Ava; and pragmatic Imogen. Clare is immediately drawn into their libertine world of sophisticated dinner parties and summers in France. The new life she always envisioned for herself has seemingly begun.
And then Tabitha reveals a little project she’s been working on, one that she needs Clare’s help with. Even though it goes against everything Clare has tried to repent for. Even though their intimacy begins to darken into codependence. But as Clare starts to realize just what her friends are capable of, it’s already too late. Because they’ve taken the plunge. They’re so close to attaining the things they want. And there’s no going back.
What is the cost of an extraordinary life if others have to pay? Reimagining the classic themes of obsession and striving with an original and sinister edge, The Things We Do to Our Friends is a seductive thriller about the toxic battle between those who have, and those who covet–between the desire to truly belong, and the danger of being truly known.
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Title: How To Sell A Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Release Date: January 17, 2023
Genre: Adult Horror
Goodreads
You know I love my horror, and am particularly keen on all haunted house content so!! Keen.

Grady Hendrix takes on the haunted house in a thrilling new novel that explores the way your past—and your family—can haunt you like nothing else.
When Louise finds out her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world.
Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale because it’ll take more than some new paint on the walls and clearing out a lifetime of memories to get this place on the market.
But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them…
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Title: Godkiller by Hannah Kaner
Release Date: January 19, 2023
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Goodreads
This is one is already so hyped!! And Waterstones had a special edition I maaay not have been able to resist.

Kissen kills gods for a living, and she enjoys it. That is until she finds a god she cannot kill: Skediceth, god of white lies, who is connected to a little noble girl on the run.
Elogast fought in the god war, and helped purge the city of a thousand shrines before laying down his sword. A mysterious request from the King sends him racing back to the city he destroyed.
On the way he meets a godkiller, a little girl and a littler god, who cannot find out about his quest.
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Title: The Black Queen by Jumata Emill
Release Date: January 31, 2023
Genre: YA Horror
Goodreads
This sounds bloody and excellent and would like to read immediately.

Nova Albright was going to be the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High—but now she’s dead. Murdered on coronation night. Fans of One of Us Is Lying and The Other Black Girl will love this unputdownable thriller.
Nova Albright, the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High, is dead. Murdered the night of her coronation, her body found the next morning in the old slave cemetery she spent her weekends rehabilitating.
Tinsley McArthur was supposed to be queen. Not only is she beautiful, wealthy, and white, it’s her legacy—her grandmother, her mother, and even her sister wore the crown before her. Everyone in Lovett knows Tinsley would do anything to carry on the McArthur tradition.
No one is more certain of that than Duchess Simmons, Nova’s best friend. Duchess’s father is the first Black police captain in Lovett. For Duchess, Nova’s crown was more than just a win for Nova. It was a win for all the Black kids. Now her best friend is dead, and her father won’t fact the fact that the main suspect is right in front of him. Duchess is convinced that Tinsley killed Nova—and that Tinsley is privileged enough to think she can get away with it. But Duchess’s father seems to be doing what he always does: fall behind the blue line. Which means that the white girl is going to walk. Duchess is determined to prove Tinsley’s guilt. And to do that, she’ll have to get close to her.
But Tinsley has an agenda, too.
Everyone loved Nova. And sometimes, love is exactly what gets you killed.
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Title: She Is A Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
Release Date: February 28, 2023
Genre: YA Horror
Goodreads
Literally so excited for this and have it preordered — because horror AND haunted houses? Always a yes.

A house with a terrifying appetite haunts a broken family in this atmospheric horror, perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic.
When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised.
But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound, while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves her cryptic warnings: Don’t eat.
Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house—the home her family has always wanted—will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house’s rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.
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Title: Such Pretty Flowers by K.L. Cerra
Release Date: February 7, 2023
Genre: Adult Horror
Goodreads
It’s horror. It’s murdery. There are carnivorous plants. The cover is my THING. Nothing more to say but I would like.

“Get it out of me.”
It was the last message Holly received from her brother, Dane, before he was found cleaved open in his fiancée’s lavish Savannah townhouse. Police ruled his death a suicide sparked by psychosis, but Holly can’t shake the idea that something else must have happened… Something involving another message he sent that night, the one that mentioned a “game” his fiancée, Maura, wanted to play…
Determined to discover the truth, Holly begins to stalk Maura—a magnetic, black-eyed florist with a penchant for carnivorous plants. But what begins as an investigation quickly veers into a darker fixation, one that lures Holly into the depths of Maura’s world: Savannah high society, eerie black roses, and a whisper of something more sinister. Soon, Holly is feeling a dark attraction to the one woman she shouldn’t trust. As Holly falls deeper for Maura and her secrets, she’s left with only one choice: find out what happened to Dane… before she meets the same fate.
A woman investigating her brother’s apparent suicide finds herself falling for her prime suspect—his darkly mysterious girlfriend—in this edgy Southern gothic thriller.
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Title: Seven Faceless Saints by M.K. Lobb
Release Date: February 7, 2023
Genre: YA
Goodreads
Pitched as “dark fantasy with a murder-mystery twist” and it’s also queer!

In the city of Ombrazia, saints and their disciples rule with terrifying and unjust power, playing favorites while the unfavored struggle to survive.
After her father’s murder at the hands of the Ombrazian military, Rossana Lacertosa is willing to do whatever it takes to dismantle the corrupt system—tapping into her powers as a disciple of Patience, joining the rebellion, and facing the boy who broke her heart. As the youngest captain in the history of Palazzo security, Damian Venturi is expected to be ruthless and strong, and to serve the saints with unquestioning devotion. But three years spent fighting in a never-ending war have left him with deeper scars than he wants to admit… and a fear of confronting the girl he left behind.
Now a murderer stalks Ombrazia’s citizens. As the body count climbs, the Palazzo is all too happy to look the other way—that is, until a disciple becomes the newest victim. With every lead turning into a dead end, Damian and Roz must team up to find the killer, even if it means digging up buried emotions. As they dive into the underbelly of Ombrazia, the pair will discover something more sinister—and far less holy. With darkness closing in and time running out, will they be able to save the city from an evil so powerful that it threatens to destroy everything in its path?
Discover what’s lurking in the shadows in this dark fantasy debut with a murder-mystery twist, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Kerri Maniscalco.
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Title: title
Release Date: February 14, 2023
Genre: Adult Dystopian
Goodreads
Dystopian featuring trans main character and AIs and found family! Very curious for this.

Valentine Weis is a salvager in the future wastelands of Utah. Wrestling with body dysphoria, he dreams of earning enough money to afford citizenship in Salt Lake City – a utopia where the testosterone and surgery he needs to transition is free, the food is plentiful, and folk are much less likely to be shot full of arrows by salt pirates. But earning that kind of money is a pipe dream, until he meets the exceptionally handsome Osric.
Once a powerful AI in Salt Lake City, Osric has been forced into an android body against his will and sent into the wasteland to offer Valentine a job on behalf of his new employer – an escort service seeking to retrieve their stolen androids. The reward is a visa into the city, and a chance at the life Valentine’s always dreamed of. But as they attempt to recover the “merchandise”, they encounter a problem: the android ladies are becoming self-aware, and have no interest in returning to their old lives.
The prize is tempting, but carrying out the job would go against everything Valentine stands for, and would threaten the fragile found family that’s kept him alive so far. He’ll need to decide whether to risk his own dream in order to give the AI a chance to live theirs.
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Title: The Last Tale Of The Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
Release Date: February 14, 2023
Genre: Adult Gothic
Goodreads
Roshani Chokshi’s writing is always gorgeous, so keen to see what she does with a lavish gothic setting as well.

A sumptuous, gothic-infused story about a marriage that is unraveled by dark secrets, a friendship cursed to end in tragedy, and the danger of believing in fairy tales—the breathtaking adult debut from New York Times bestselling author Roshani Chokshi.
Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.
But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.
Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
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Title: Where Darkness Blooms by Andrea Hannah
Release Date: February 21, 2023
Genre: YA Horror
Goodreads
If it’s horror and has murderous plants, I just need it. (This is also queer!)

Andrea Hannah’s Where Darkness Blooms is a supernatural thriller about an eerie town where the sunflowers whisper secrets and the land hungers for blood.
The town of Bishop is known for exactly two things: recurring windstorms and an endless field of sunflowers that stretches farther than the eye can see. And women—missing women. So when three more women disappear one stormy night, no one in Bishop is surprised. The case is closed and their daughters are left in their dusty shared house with the shattered pieces of their lives. Until the wind kicks up a terrible secret at their mothers’ much-delayed memorial.
With secrets come the lies each of the girls is forced to confront. After caring for the other girls, Delilah would like to move on with her boyfriend, Bennett, but she can’t bear his touch. Whitney has already lost both her mother and her girlfriend, Eleanor, and now her only solace is an old weathervane that seems to whisper to her. Jude, Whitney’s twin sister, would rather ignore it all, but the wind kicks up her secret too: the summer fling she had with Delilah’s boyfriend. And more than anything, Bo wants answers and she wants them now. Something happened to their mothers and the townsfolk know what it was. She’s sure of it.
Bishop has always been a strange town. But what the girls don’t know is that Bishop was founded on blood—and now it craves theirs.
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Title: The Thorns Remain by J.J.A. Harwood
Release Date: February 23, 2023
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Goodreads
Sounds like very lush writing, with fae and magic. Also cannot deny how much I love this cover.

From the Sunday Times bestselling historical fantasy author of THE SHADOW IN THE GLASS comes a tour-de-force of faerie bargains, perfect for fans of THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LA RUE, MEXICAN GOTHIC, and TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY.
A dance with the fae will change everything
1919. In a highland village forgotten by the world, harvest season is over and the young who remain after war and flu have ravaged the village will soon head south to make something of themselves.
Moira Jean and her friends head to the forest for a last night of laughter before parting ways. Moira Jean is being left behind. She had plans to leave once – but her lover died in France and with him, her future. The friends light a fire, sing and dance. But with every twirl about the flames, strange new dancers thread between them, music streaming from the trees.
The fae are here.
Suddenly Moira Jean finds herself all alone, her friends spirited away. The iron medal of her lost love, pinned to her dress, protected her from magic. For the Fae feel forgotten too. Lead by the darkly handsome Lord of the Fae, they are out to make themselves known once more. Moira Jean must enter into a bargain with the Lord to save her friends – and fast, for the longer one spends with the Fae, the less like themselves they are upon return. If Moira Jean cannot save her friends before Beltine, they will be lost forever…
Completely bewitching, threaded with Highland charm and sparkling with dark romance, this is a fairytale that will carry you away.
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Title: Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury
Release Date: February 28, 2023
Genre: YA
Goodreads
The Haunting of Hill House comp!! The cover!! Horror!! All my things.

The Haunting of Hill House meets Sadie in this evocative and mind-bending psychological thriller following two teen girls navigating the treacherous past of a mysterious mansion ten years apart.
Daisy sees dead people—something impossible to forget in bustling, ghost-packed Toronto. She usually manages to deal with her unwanted ability, but she’s completely unprepared to be dumped by her boyfriend. So when her mother inherits a secluded mansion in northern Ontario where she spent her childhood summers, Daisy jumps at the chance to escape. But the house is nothing like Daisy expects, and she begins to realize that her experience with the supernatural might be no match for her mother’s secrets, nor what lurks within these walls…
A decade later, Brittney is desperate to get out from under the thumb of her abusive mother, a bestselling author who claims her stay at “Miracle Mansion” allowed her to see the error of her ways. But Brittney knows that’s nothing but a sham. She decides the new season of her popular Haunted web series will uncover what happened to a young Black girl in the mansion ten years prior and finally expose her mother’s lies. But as she gets more wrapped up in the investigation, she’ll have to decide: if she can only bring one story to light, which one matters most—Daisy’s or her own?
As Brittney investigates the mansion in the present, Daisy’s story runs parallel in the past, both timelines propelling the girls to face the most dangerous monsters of all: those that hide in plain sight.
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Title: If I Can Give You That by Michael Gray Bulla
Release Date: February 28, 2023
Genre: YA
Goodreads
Always keen for more queer contemporary! This one caught my eye for sure.

For fans of Kacen Callender and Mason Deaver comes a heart-tugging coming-of-age YA debut that takes a poignant look at gender identity, sexuality, friendship, and family—both the one we’re born into and the one we find for ourselves.
Seventeen-year-old Gael is used to keeping to himself. Though his best friend convinces him to attend a meeting of Plus, a support group for LGBTQIA+ teens, Gael doesn’t plan on sharing much. Where would he even start?
Between supporting his mother through her bouts of depression, dealing with his estranged father, and navigating senior year as a transgender boy at a conservative Tennessean high school, his life is a lot to unload on strangers.
But after meeting easygoing Declan, Gael is welcomed into a new circle of friends who make him want to open up. As Gael’s friendship with Declan develops into something more, he finds himself caught between his mother’s worsening mental health and his father’s attempts to reconnect.
After tragedy strikes, Gael must decide if he can risk letting the walls around his heart down and fully opening up to those who care for him.
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Title: A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
Release Date: March 28, 2023
Genre: Adult Horror
Goodreads
Always keen for more T Kingfisher gothic horror!

Dark and twisted family roots threaten to strangle their home’s foundations in this chilling haunted house novel from the award-winning master of modern horror, T. Kingfisher.
Samantha Montgomery pulls into the driveway of her family home to find a massive black vulture perched on the mailbox, staring at the house.
Inside, everything has changed. Gone is the eclectic warmth Sam expects; instead the walls are a sterile white. Now, it’s very important to say grace before dinner, and her mother won’t hear a word against Sam’s long-dead and little-missed grandmother, who was the first to put down roots in this small southern town.
The longer Sam stays, the stranger things get. And every day, more vultures circle overhead…
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Title: My Dear Henry by Kalynn Bayron
Release Date: March 7, 2023
Genre: YA Classics Retelling
Goodreads
Gothic Jekyll & Hyde retelling!! I also really enjoy Kalynn Bayron’s previous works, so time for more (and this is queer).

In this gothic YA remix of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, a teen boy tries to discover the reason behind his best friend’s disappearance—and the arrival of a mysterious and magnetic stranger—in misty Victorian London.
London, 1885. Gabriel Utterson, a 17-year-old law clerk, has returned to London for the first time since his life— and that of his dearest friend, Henry Jekyll—was derailed by a scandal that led to his and Henry’s expuslion from the London Medical School. Whispers about the true nature of Gabriel and Henry’s relationship have followed the boys for two years, and now Gabriel has a chance to start again.
But Gabriel doesn’t want to move on, not without Henry. His friend has become distant and cold since the disastrous events of the prior spring, and now his letters have stopped altogether. Desperate to discover what’s become of him, Gabriel takes to watching the Jekyll house.
In doing so, Gabriel meets Hyde, a a strangely familiar young man with white hair and a magnetic charisma. He claims to be friends with Henry, and Gabriel can’t help but begin to grow jealous at their apparent closeness, especially as Henry continues to act like Gabriel means nothing to him.
But the secret behind Henry’s apathy is only the first part of a deeper mystery that has begun to coalesce. Monsters of all kinds prowl within the London fog—and not all of them are out for blood…
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Title: The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten
Release Date: March 7, 2023
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Goodreads
Lush fantasy and death magic has me very intrigued.

When Lore was thirteen, she escaped a cult in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire. And in the ten years since, she’s lived by one rule: don’t let them find you. Easier said than done, when her death magic ties her to the city.
Mortem, the magic born from death, is a high-priced and illicit commodity in Dellaire, and Lore’s job running poisons keeps her in food, shelter, and relative security. But when a run goes wrong and Lore’s power is revealed, she’s taken by the Presque Mort, a group of warrior-monks sanctioned to use Mortem working for the Sainted King. Lore fully expects a pyre, but King August has a different plan. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore can either use her magic to find out what’s happening and who in the King’s court is responsible, or die.
Lore is thrust into the Sainted King’s glittering court, where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted. Guarded by Gabriel, a duke-turned-monk, and continually running up against Bastian, August’s ne’er-do-well heir, Lore tangles in politics, religion, and forbidden romance as she attempts to navigate a debauched and opulent society.
But the life she left behind in the catacombs is catching up with her. And even as Lore makes her way through the Sainted court above, they might be drawing closer than she thinks.
In this lush, romantic new epic fantasy series from New York Times bestselling author Hannah Whitten, a young woman’s secret power to raise the dead plunges her into the dangerous and glamorous world of the Sainted King’s royal court.
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Title: Flowerheart by Katherine Bakewell
Release Date: March 14, 2023
Genre: YA
Goodreads
So this is pitched as “cottagecore fantasy” and I absolutely want that!! I really hope it is soft and lovely.

Perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson and Tamora Pierce, this standalone YA debut is a stunning cottagecore fantasy romance about a girl with powerful and violent magic, which she must learn to control—or lose everything she loves.
Clara’s magic has always been wild. But it’s never been dangerous. Then a simple touch causes poisonous flowers to bloom in her father’s chest.
The only way to heal him is to cast an extremely difficult spell that requires perfect control. And the only person willing to help is her former best friend, Xavier, who’s grown from a sweet, shy child into a mysterious and distant young man.
Xavier names a terrible price in return, knowing Clara will give anything to save her father. As she struggles to reconcile the new Xavier with the boy she once loved, she discovers their bargain is only one of the heavy secrets he’s hiding. And as she hunts for the truth, she instead finds the root of a terrible darkness that’s taken hold in the queendom—a darkness only Clara’s magic is powerful enough to stop.
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Title: Greymist Fair by Francesca Zappia
Release Date: March 28, 2023
Genre: YA Horror
Goodreads
Lesser known Grimm fairytales! Plus I have enjoyed Zappia’s previous (heartbreaking) books.

The people of Greymist Fair know that the woods are a dangerous and magical place, and that they should never set foot off the road. But when a young tailor discovers a body on the road, her search for the culprit reveals even more strange and dark happenings around her town. From acclaimed author Francesca Zappia, Greymist Fair is a suspenseful and inventive murder-mystery inspired by the lesser-known fairytales of the Brothers Grimm. Greymist Fair will bewitch readers of Rachel Vincent’s Red Wolf, Liz Braswell’s A Twisted Tale series, and fans of Into the Woods.
Features chapter decorations by the author throughout, as well as a map.
Two roads lead into a dark forest. They meet at Greymist Fair, the village hidden in the trees, a place kept alive by the families that never leave. The people of Greymist Fair know the woods are a dangerous and magical place, and to set foot off the road is to invite trouble.
When Heike, the village’s young tailor, discovers a body on the road, she goes looking for who is responsible. But her quest only leads to more strange happenings around Greymist Fair.
Inspired by the original, bloody, lesser-known fairytales of the Brothers Grimm, acclaimed author Francesca Zappia crafts an enthralling murder-mystery that will keep readers turning the pages. Told from multiple points of view, with each narrative building on the crime discovered by Heike, Greymist Fair examines the themes of childhood fears, growing into adult responsibilities, and finding a place to call home amid the trials of life and death.
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Title: The Memory Eater by Rebecca Mahoney
Release Date: March 14, 2023
Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy
Goodreads
Looks like it wants to make us cry so!! Let’s go.

A teenage girl must save her town from a memory-devouring monster in this piercing exploration of grief, trauma, and memory, from the author of The Valley and the Flood.
For generations, a monster called the Memory Eater has lived in the caves of Whistler Beach, Maine, surviving off the unhappy memories of those who want to forget. And for generations, the Harlows have been in charge of keeping her locked up—and keeping her fed.
After her grandmother dies, seventeen-year-old Alana Harlow inherits the family business. But there’s something Alana doesn’t know: the strange gaps in her memory aren’t from an accident. Her memories have been taken—eaten. And with them, she’s lost the knowledge of how to keep the monster contained.
Now the Memory Eater is loose. Alana’s mistake could cost Whistler Beach everything—unless she can figure out how to retrieve her own memories and recapture the monster. But as Alana delves deeper into her family’s magic and the history of her town, she discovers a shocking secret at the center of the Harlow family business and learns that tampering with memories never comes without a price.
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Title: The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller
Release Date: March 28, 2023
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Goodreads
I do like some tricksy wicked fae and their bargains so hoping this delivers that. Am keen!

On Prospect Hill, you can get nearly anything you want from the Fae—if you know how to ask and if you can pay the price.
There is no magic on Prospect Hill—or anywhere else, for that matter. But just on the other side of the veil is the world of the Fae, and all their magic. Generations ago, the first farmers on Prospect Hill learned to bargain small trades to make their lives a little easier—a bit of glass to find something lost, a cup of milk for better layers in the chicken coop.
Much of that old wisdom has been lost as the riverboats gave way to the rail lines and the farmers took work at the copper works and the cotton mill. Alaine Fairborn’s family, however, was always superstitious, and she still hums the rhymes to find her lost shoe and ensure dry weather on her sister Delphine’s wedding day.
But when Delphine confides her new husband is not the man she thought he was, Alaine will stop at nothing to help her sister escape his abuse. Small bargains buy them time, but the progress of locomotives and factories hasn’t given way to equitable laws for women. A major bargain is needed, but the price for sweeping change may be more than they’re willing to pay
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Title: Into The Light by Mark Oshiro
Release Date: September
Genre: YA Thriller
Goodreads
The comps on this one have me intrigued and I do like wilderness stories!

It’s been one year since Manny was cast out of his family and driven into the wilderness of the American Southwest. Since then, Manny lives by self-taught rules that keep him moving—and keep him alive. Now, he’s taking a chance on a traveling situation with the Varela family, whose attractive but surly son, Carlos, seems to promise a new future.
Eli abides by the rules of his family, living in a secluded community that raised him to believe his obedience will be rewarded. But an unsettling question slowly eats away at Eli’s once unwavering faith in Reconciliation: Why can’t he remember his past?
But the reported discovery of an unidentified body in the hills of Idyllwild, California, will draw both of these young men into facing their biggest fears and confronting their own identity—and who they are allowed to be.
For fans of Courtney Summers and Tiffany D. Jackson, Into the Light is a ripped-from-the-headlines story with Oshiro’s signature mix of raw emotions and visceral prose—but with a startling twist you’ll have to read to believe.
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Title: Midnight Strikes by Zeba Shahnaz
Release Date: March 14, 2023
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Seems an exciting romp, with time travel and rougish princes!

In this explosive fantasy debut with a time-loop twist, a provincial girl must work with a roguish prince to stop an attack on the royal family and escape a nightmarish curse that forces them to relive the same night again and again.
Seventeen-year-old Anaïs just wants tonight to end. As an outsider at the kingdom’s glittering anniversary ball, she has no desire to rub shoulders with the nation’s most eligible (and pompous) bachelors—especially not the notoriously roguish Prince Leo. But at the stroke of midnight, an explosion rips through the palace, killing everyone in its path. Including her.
The last thing Anaïs sees is fire, smoke, chaos . . . and then she wakes up in her bedroom, hours before the ball. No one else remembers the deadly attack or believes her warnings of disaster.
Not even when it happens again. And again. And again.
If she’s going to escape this nightmarish time loop, Anaïs must take control of her own fate and stop the attack before it happens. But the court’s gilded surface belies a rotten core, full of restless nobles grabbing at power, discontented commoners itching for revolution, and even royals who secretly dream of taking the throne. It’s up to Anaïs to untangle these knots of deadly deceptions . . . if she can survive past midnight.
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Title: The Insatiable Volt Sisters by Rachel Eve Moulton
Release Date: April 4, 2023
Genre: Adult Thriller
Goodreads
Twisty, dark family dramas are exactly what I need on my TBR pile.

From the author of Tinfoil Butterfly, a blazingly original novel about sisters who return to the remote island they grew up on to face the monsters lurking in their family history.
It’s the summer of 1989 and Beatrice and Henrietta Volt are coming of age on remote Fowler Island in Lake Erie, their ancestral home and wild playground. Thicker than thieves, they plot their futures while their parents pick their marriage apart piece by piece. The girls have no idea that their parents are separating. Or that the plan is to separate them.
Ten years pass and Henrie gets a desperate call from her sister–their father has died suddenly and B.B. needs Henrie to come back to the island for the funeral. When Henrie arrives, the island seems even stranger than she remembers. But the truth is, she doesn’t remember much about the island, and nothing at all about the night she left. She just feels a vague and perplexing sense of dread and a sharp fear of the quarry pond behind the house.
Told from the perspectives of four flawed, fascinating women, The Insatiable Volt Sisters is a lush, enthralling fable about monsters real and imagined and the sometimes painful bonds of sisterhood. From the unbounded imagination of Rachel Eve Moulton, the critically acclaimed author of Tinfoil Butterfly, comes another eerie, terrifying exploration of family and legacy: Will the Volt sisters inherit the horrors of their past or surpass them?
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Title: Hungry Ghost by Victoria Ying
Release Date: April 25, 2023
Genre: YA Contemporary, Graphic Novel
Goodreads
This is a graphic novel, and it sounds like it’ll be absolutely beautiful and heart-wrenching, with mental illness rep and a healing arc. Need!

A beautiful and heart-wrenching young adult graphic novel takes a look at eating disorders, family dynamics, and ultimately, a journey to self-love.
Valerie Chu is quiet, studious, and above all, thin. No one, not even her best friend Jordan, knows that she has been binging and purging for years. But when tragedy strikes, Val finds herself taking a good, hard look at her priorities, her choices, and her own body. The path to happiness may lead her away from her hometown and her mother’s toxic projections—but first she will have to find the strength to seek help.
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Title: The Last Heir To The Blackwood Library by Hester Fox
Release Date: April 4, 2023
Genre: Adult Gothic Fantasy
Goodreads
When the pitch is “young woman inherits a mysterious library” I’m THERE simply because wish that was me.

With the stroke of a pen, twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe becomes Lady Hayworth, owner of a sprawling estate on the Yorkshire moors. Ivy has never heard of Blackwood Abbey, or of the ancient bloodline from which she’s descended. With nothing to keep her in London since losing her brother in the Great War, she warily makes her way to her new home.
The abbey is foreboding, the servants reserved and suspicious. But there is a treasure waiting behind locked doors: a magnificent library. Despite cryptic warnings from the staff, Ivy feels irresistibly drawn to its dusty shelves, where familiar works mingle with strange, esoteric texts. And she senses something else in the library too, a presence that seems to have a will of its own.
Rumors swirl in the village about the abbey’s previous owners, about ghosts and curses, and an enigmatic manuscript at the center of it all. And as events grow more sinister, it will be up to Ivy to uncover the library’s mysteries in order to reclaim her own story—before it vanishes forever.
Lush, atmospheric and transporting, The Last Heir to Blackwood Library is a skillful reflection on memory and female agency, and a love letter to books from a writer at the height of her power.
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Title: The Sharp Edge of Silence by Cameron Kelly Rosenblum
Release Date: April 11, 2023
Genre: YA Thriller
Goodreads
Seems like it will have dark academia vibes, while tackling the toxicity of elitism, so am keen to try  it.

Tradition meets Pretty Little Liars in this timely and haunting YA contemporary standalone that tackles the contagious nature of toxic masculinity at an elite boarding school clinging to its past, and the sexual assault that changes everything.
WHO WILL YOU BE AT LYCROFT PHELPS?
This is the question all Lycroft applicants want to be asked. It means they’ve been accepted to one of the most elite private high schools in the nation. Over 150 years is plenty of time for traditions to bake into the campus’s bricks and ivy. Ceremonies. Athletic rivalries. Secret societies. Pranks taken too far. But navigating it all will make Charlotte (perfect, straight-A student), Max (scholarship kid and STEM whiz), and Quinn (artist, dreamer, Lycroft legacy) question all they thought they knew about themselves…and the school.
Especially when Quinn’s sexual assault becomes public and implicates one of the top-tier athletes on campus.
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Title: Sisters Of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina
Release Date: April 18, 2023
Genre: Adult Mythological Horror
Goodreads
Indigenous American horror!! Very much want to try this.

A young Native girl’s hunt for answers about the women mysteriously disappearing from her tribe’s reservation lead her to delve into the myths and stories of her people, all while being haunted herself, in this atmospheric and stunningly poignant debut.
Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation’s casino…and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step–an ancient tribal myth come-to-life, one that’s intent on devouring her whole.
With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she’s sure lies in the legends of her tribe’s past.
When Anna’s own little sister also disappears, she’ll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation–both ancient and new–are strong, and sometimes, it’s the stories that never get told that are the most important.
Part gripping thriller and part mythological horror, author Nick Medina spins an incisive and timely novel of life as an outcast, the cost of forgetting tradition, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be.
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Title: The Cherished by Patricia Ward
Release Date: April 18, 2023
Genre: YA Horror
Goodreads
MORE HORROR. Because you know I cannot get enough. And this one involves inheriting creepy houses.

For fans of Claire Legrand, Rory Power, and Danielle Vega comes a visceral horror thriller in the vein of Midsommar, as one girl inherits a mysterious house from her estranged grandmother—and a letter with sinister instructions.
Jo never expected to be placed in her absent grandmother’s will—let alone be left her house, her land, and a letter with mysterious demands.
Upon arriving at the inherited property, things are even more strange.
The tenants mentioned in the letter are odd, just slightly…off. Jo feels something dark and decrepit in the old shack behind the house. And the things that her father used to talk about, his delusions… Why is Jo starting to believe they might be real?
But what Jo fears most is the letter from her grandmother. Because if it’s true, then Jo belongs here, in this strange place. And she has no choice but to stay.
With a deadly enemy that cannot be seen, a world that may only be unlocked by a chosen few, and a chilling past that must be unearthed at any cost, The Cherished is an original, hypnotizing contemporary horror—one that will thrill readers of White Smoke, Wilder Girls, and The Hazel Wood.
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Title: A Hunger Of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson
Release Date: April 18, 2023
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Witches and monsters!! Enough said. Also keen for more Aussie fantasy authors.

Maude is the daughter of witches. She spent her childhood running wild with her best friend, Odette, weaving stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes. Then Maude grew up and lost her magic—and her best friend.
These days, magic is toothless, reduced to glamour patches and psychic energy drinks found in supermarkets and shopping malls. Odette has always hungered for forbidden, dangerous magic, and two weeks ago she went searching for it. Now she’s missing, and everyone says she’s dead. Everyone except Maude.
Storytelling has always been Maude’s gift, so she knows all about girls who get lost in the woods. She’s sure she can find Odette inside the ruins of Sicklehurst, an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forest—a place nobody else seems to remember is there. The danger is, no one knows what remains inside Sicklehurst, either. And every good story is sure to have a monster.
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Title: Pieces Of Me by Kate McLaughlin
Release Date: April 18, 2023
Genre: YA Contemporary
Goodreads
Hoping this is good and accurate rep for DID, so keen to try it.

The next gut-punching, compulsively readable Kate McLaughlin novel, about a girl finding strength in not being alone.
When eighteen-year-old Dylan wakes up, she’s in an apartment she doesn’t recognize. The other people there seem to know her, but she doesn’t know them – not even the pretty, chiseled boy who tells her his name is Connor. A voice inside her head keeps saying that everything is okay, but Dylan can’t help but freak out. Especially when she borrows Connor’s phone to call home and realizes she’s been missing for three days.
Dylan has lost time before, but never like this.
Soon after, Dylan is diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and must grapple not only with the many people currently crammed inside her head, but that a secret from her past so terrible she’s blocked it out has put them there. Her only distraction is a budding new relationship with Connor. But as she gets closer to finding out the truth, Dylan wonders: will it heal her or fracture her further?
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Title: The Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst
Release Date: April 25, 2023
Genre: YA Thriller
Goodreads
I do love a good thriller and this sounds really hooky.

Yellowjackets meets One of Us Is Lying in this masterful survival thriller from award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst.
Claire’s grown up triple-checking locks. Counting her steps. Second-guessing every decision. It’s just how she’s wired-her worst-case scenarios never actually come true.
Until she arrives at an off-the-grid summer camp to find a blackened, burned husk instead of a lodge-and no survivors, except her and two other late arrivals: Reyva and Mariana.
When the three girls find a dead body in the woods, they realize none of this is an accident. Someone, something, is hunting them. Something that hides in the shadows. Something that refuses to let them leave.
Irresistible and action-packed until the very final page, The Lake House will have readers glued to their seats as tension builds and danger mounts-and a final, shocking twist is revealed.
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2022 New YA & Adult Book Releases (Part 3)

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Hello, hello, it’s time for Part 3 of my annual new young adult & adult book releases round up!

Wherein I just write these posts to pine over books now, but you know. What else is life for but to wistfully dream of books. As always everything is linked to Goodreads! And I’m doing a culmination of YA and Adult because these days I have my eyes on both. Like, as if my TBR pile didn’t have enough on it already.

See Part 1 and Part 2 of my 2022 releases lists!

Title: Direwood by Catherine Yu
Release Date: September 20th 2022
Genre: YA Horror
Goodreads
it said ’90s GOTHIC HORROR and I cried with want and need for it. That is all. Please give me.

In this velvet-clad 1990s gothic horror, Aja encounters a charming vampire who wants to lure her into the woods—just like her missing sister.
No one ever pays attention to sixteen-year-old Aja until her perfect older sister Fiona goes missing. In the days leading up to Fiona’s disappearance, Aja notices some extraordinary things: a strange fog rolling through their idyllic suburban town, a brief moment when the sky seems to rain blood, and a host of parasitic caterpillars burrowing their way through the trees. Aja’s father, the neighbors, and even her ex-friend Mary all play down this strange string of occurrences, claiming there must be some natural explanation. It seems everyone is willing to keep living in denial until other teens start to go missing too.
Aja is horrified when she meets Padraic, the vampire responsible for all the strange occurrences. His hypnotic voice lures her to the window and tells her everything she’s longed to hear—she’s beautiful and special, and he wants nothing more than for Aja to come with him. Aja knows she shouldn’t trust him, but she’s barely able to resist his enthrallment. And following him into the woods may be the only way to find Fiona, so she agrees on one condition: He must let her leave alive if she is not wooed after one week. Though Aja plans to kill him before the week is out, Padraic has his own secrets as well.
In the misty woods, Aja finds that Padraic has made his nest with another vampire in a dilapidated church infested by blood-sucking butterflies. Within its walls, the vampires are waited on and entertained by other children they’ve enthralled, but there is no sign of Fiona. Before her bargain is up, Aja must find a way to turn her classmates against their captors, find her sister, and save them all—or be forced to join the very monsters she wants to destroy.  
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Title: The Weight Of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
Release Date: September 6th 2022
Genre: YA Horror
Goodreads
I’m such a huge fan of this author!! I think I’ve read all of her books so far too 👀👌🏻 And very pleased she’s headed from thriller into horror (though her thrillers are also my absolutely favourites.)

New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson ramps up the horror and tackles America’s history and legacy of racism in this suspenseful YA novel following a biracial teenager as her Georgia high school hosts its first integrated prom.
When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation . . . Maddy did it.
An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she’s dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.
After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High’s racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school’s first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it’s possible to have a normal life.
But some of her classmates aren’t done with her just yet. And what they don’t know is that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives.  
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Title: Unraveller by Frances Hardinge
Release Date: September 1st 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
I read Deeplight last year and it’s one of my new favourite books so I absolutely need the author’s latest!

A dark YA fantasy about learning to use your power and finding peace, from award-winning author Frances Hardinge.
In a world where anyone can create a life-destroying curse, only one person has the power to unravel them.
Kellen does not fully understand his talent, but helps those transformed maliciously—including Nettle. Recovered from entrapment in bird form, she is now his constant companion and closest ally.
But Kellen has also been cursed, and unless he and Nettle can remove his curse, Kellen is in danger of unravelling everything—and everyone—around him . . . 
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Title: Shades Of Rust And Ruin by A.G. Howard
Release Date: September 6th 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
A Halloween steampunk book? Sign me up, quite frankly. Plus I always have fond memories of A.G. Howard’s Splintered series from back circa 2012.

Embrace the mysterious. Invoke the magical. Enter the Mystiquiel…
Phoenix “Nix” Loring knows her family is under a Halloween curse. When she was three, her parents tragically died on October 31st. Eleven years later, her twin sister Lark suffered a similar fate.
Ever since, Nix has battled survivor guilt. She can’t even find comfort in Clarey, Lark’s boyfriend and the one person who understands her pain, because Nix’s hidden feelings for him go far beyond friendship. All that remains are her sketches, where she finds solace among the goblins and faeries in her imaginary world of Mystiquel. When her depression starts affecting her ability to see color, Nix all but gives up on her art, until her uncle goes missing on Halloween day. Hot on his trail, Nix and Clarey step through a portal, becoming trapped inside a decaying version of their town filled with Nix’s own sketches come to life.
As Nix and Clarey search for her uncle within the sinister and dangerous world of Mystiquel, Nix discovers there’s more to her family curse and otherworldly artwork than she ever imagined—and unless she can solve the Goblin King’s maze before the clock strikes midnight, her life won’t be the only one the curse claims next.
Set in a gritty, steampunk-inspired fantasy world, New York Times bestselling author A.G. Howard launches a thrilling new duology full of romance, twists, and betrayals.  
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Title: Bone Weaver by Aden Polydoros
Release Date: September 20th 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
The City Beautiful was such a favourite from last year that the author is currently an auto-buy decision for me. 😂

A haunting fantasy following Toma, adopted daughter of the benevolent undead, making her way across a civil war-torn continent to save her younger sister as she discovers she might possess magical powers herself.
The Kosa empire roils in tension, on the verge of being torn apart by a proletarian revolution between magic-endowed elites and the superstitious lower class, but seventeen-year-old Toma lives blissfully disconnected from the conflict in the empire with her adoptive family of benevolent undead.
When she meets Vanya, a charming commoner branded as a witch by his own neighbors, and the dethroned Tsar Mikhail himself, the unlikely trio bonds over trying to restore Mikhail’s magic and protect the empire from the revolutionary leader, Koschei, whose forces have stolen the castle. Vanya has his magic, and Mikhail has his title, but if Toma can’t dig deep and find her power in time, all of their lives will be at Koschei’s mercy. 
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Title: House Of Hunger by Alexis Henderson
Release Date: September 27th 2022
Genre: Adult Historical Fantasy
Goodreads
Gothic sapphic vampires, say no more, truly. I will just have it. (Actually have it preordered.)

WANTED – Bloodmaid of exceptional taste. Must have a keen proclivity for life’s finer pleasures. Girls of weak will need not apply.
A young woman is drawn into the upper echelons of a society where blood is power, in this dark and enthralling gothic novel from the author of The Year of the Witching.
Marion Shaw has been raised in the slums, where want and deprivation is all she knows. Despite longing to leave the city and its miseries, she has no real hope of escape until the day she spots a peculiar listing in the newspaper, seeking a bloodmaid.
Though she knows little about the far north—where wealthy nobles live in luxury and drink the blood of those in their service—Marion applies to the position. In a matter of days, she finds herself the newest bloodmaid at the notorious House of Hunger. There, Marion is swept into a world of dark debauchery—and at the center of it all is her.
Countess Lisavet, who presides over this hedonistic court, is loved and feared in equal measure. She takes a special interest in Marion. Lisavet is magnetic, and Marion is eager to please her new mistress. But when her fellow bloodmaids begin to go missing in the night, Marion is thrust into a vicious game of cat and mouse. She’ll need to learn the rules of her new home—and fast—or its halls will soon become her grave.  
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Title: Lark And Kasim Start A Revolution by Kacen Callender
Release Date: September 27th 2022
Genre: YA Contemporary
Goodreads
I’ve loved two books by this author! (King And The Dragonflies and Felix Ever After) So definitely want more from them, plus this one has neurodivergent main characters I’ve heard.

Lark Winters wants to be a writer, and for now that means posting on their social media accounts––anything to build their platform. When former best friend Kasim accidentally posts a thread on Lark’s Twitter declaring his love for a secret, unrequited crush, Lark’s tweets are suddenly the talk of the school—and beyond. To protect Kasim, Lark decides to take the fall, pretending they accidentally posted the thread in reference to another classmate. It seems like a great idea: Lark gets closer to their crush, Kasim keeps his privacy, and Lark’s social media stats explode. But living a lie takes a toll—as does the judgment of thousands of Internet strangers. Lark tries their best to be perfect at all costs, but nothing seems good enough for the anonymous hordes––or for Kasim, who is growing closer to Lark, just like it used to be between them . . .
In the end, Lark must embrace their right to their messy emotions and learn how to be in love. 
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Title: Notorious Sorcerer by Davina Evans
Release Date: September 13th 2022
Genre: Adult Spec Fic
Goodreads
More queer specfic and the cover is giving me darker shade of magic vibes which sounds fun. Plus an Australian author!

Since the city of Bezim was shaken half into the sea by a magical earthquake, the Inquisitors have policed alchemy with brutal efficiency. Nothing too powerful, too complicated, too much like real magic is allowed–and the careful science that’s left is kept too expensive for any but the rich and indolent to tinker with. Siyon Velo, a glorified errand boy scraping together lesson money from a little inter-planar fetch and carry, doesn’t qualify.
But when Siyon accidentally commits a public act of impossible magic, he’s catapulted into the limelight. Except the limelight is a bad place to be when the planes themselves start lurching out of alignment, threatening to send the rest of the city into the sea.
Now Siyon, a dockside brat who clawed his way up and proved himself on rooftops with saber in hand, might be Bezim’s only hope. Because if they don’t fix the cascading failures of magic in their plane, the Powers and their armies in the other three will do it for them. 
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Honourable Mentions

Title: The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake
Release Date: October 25th 2022
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Goodreads
This is definitely one of my top anticipated releases for 2022 now, since I loved The Atlas Six so much. Plus it landed on a cliffhanger and sir, I am owed answers.

The Atlas Paradox is the long-awaited sequel to dark academic sensation The Atlas Six—guaranteed to have even more yearning, backstabbing, betrayal, and chaos.
Six magicians. Two rivalries. One researcher. And a man who can walk through dreams. All must pick a side: do they wish to preserve the world—or destroy it? In this electric sequel to the viral sensation, The Atlas Six, the society of Alexandrians is revealed for what it is: a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already under way. But the cost of knowledge is steep, and as the price of power demands each character choose a side, which alliances will hold and which will see their enmity deepen?” 
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Title: The Wolves Are Watching by Natalie Lund
Release Date: October 4th 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy Mystery
Goodreads
It said “chilling mystery” and “forest” so I am here for it. Plus it sounds like it’ll have a touch of magical realism.

The night little Madison disappears from her crib, Luce sees a pair of eyes–two points of gold deep in the forest behind her house–and feels certain they belong to a wolf. Her town, Picnic, Illinois, is the kind of place where everyone knows one another and no one locks their doors. It’s not the kind of place where a toddler goes missing without a trace, where wolves lurk in the shadows.
In town, people are quick to blame Madison’s mom. But when Luce’s English teacher shares an original script about the disappearance of another little girl in Picnic back in 1870, Luce begins to notice similarities that she can’t ignore. Certain that something deeper is going on, Luce tracks the wolf she saw into the woods and uncovers the truth about her town: magical animal-women, who have remained hidden in shadows for centuries, have taken her cousin for their own purposes–and they have no intention of bringing her back.
A chilling mystery that weaves elements of magical realism, drama, and folklore into a story of one teen’s bravery as she confronts her town’s past and tries to save the future.
 
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Title: Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen
Release Date: October 18th 2022
Genre: Adult Historical Thriller
Goodreads
I’ve seen this comped as for fans of Knives Out, so that’s meeee. And I’ve enjoyed this author’s YA so am keen to see what they do for adult historical!

Lavender House, 1952: the family seat of recently deceased matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire. Irene’s recipes for her signature scents are a well guarded secret – but it’s not the only one behind these gates. This estate offers a unique freedom, where none of the residents or staff hide who they are. But to keep their secret, they’ve needed to keep others out. And now they’re worried they’re keeping a murderer in.
Irene’s widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired from the San Francisco police after being caught in a raid on a gay bar, is happy to accept – his calendar is wide open. And his secret is the kind of secret the Lamontaines understand.
Andy had never imagined a world like Lavender House. He’s seduced by the safety and freedom found behind its gates, where a queer family lives honestly and openly. But that honesty doesn’t extend to everything, and he quickly finds himself a pawn in a family game of old money, subterfuge, and jealousy—and Irene’s death is only the beginning.
When your existence is a crime, everything you do is criminal, and the gates of Lavender House can’t lock out the real world forever. Running a soap empire can be a dirty business. 
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Title: The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew
Release Date: October 18th 2022
Genre: YA Paranormal
Goodreads
Not sure if this counts as dark academia exactly but it IS set in college and the protagonist is Deaf (plus it’s by a Deaf author!)

The Raven Boys meets Ninth House in the most exciting debut of 2022 — a dark, atmospheric fantasy about a Deaf college student with a peculiar connection to the afterlife.
Delaney Meyers-Petrov is tired of being seen as fragile just because she’s Deaf. So when she’s accepted into a prestigious program at Godbole University that trains students to slip between parallel worlds, she’s excited for the chance to prove herself. But her semester gets off to a rocky start as she faces professors who won’t accommodate her disability, and a pretentious upperclassman fascinated by Delaney’s unusual talents.
Colton Price died when he was nine years old. Quite impossibly, he woke several weeks later at the feet of a green-eyed little girl. Now, twelve years later, Delaney Meyers-Petrov has stumbled back into his orbit, but Colton’s been ordered to keep far away from the new girl… and the voices she hears calling to her from the shadows.
Delaney wants to keep her distance from Colton — she seems to be the only person on campus who finds him more arrogant than charming — yet after a Godbole student turns up dead, she and Colton are forced to form a tenuous alliance, plummeting down a rabbit-hole of deeply buried university secrets. But Delaney and Colton discover the cost of opening the doors between worlds when they find themselves up against something old and nameless, an enemy they need to destroy before it tears them — and their forbidden partnership — apart. 
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Title: Road Of The Lost by Nafiza Azad
Release Date: October 18th 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Anything that says “perfect for fans of the cruel prince” is clearly talking to me, so I cannot ignore. I also appreciate how it’s part of the Faces With Floral Covers trend.

Croi is a brownie, glamoured to be invisible to humans. Her life in the Wilde Forest is ordinary and her magic is weak—until the day that her guardian gives Croi a book about magick from the Otherworld, the world of the Higher Fae. Croi wakes the next morning with something pulling at her core, summoning her to the Otherworld. It’s a spell she cannot control or break.
Forced to leave her home, Croi begins a journey full of surprises…and dangers. For Croi is not a brownie at all but another creature entirely, enchanted to forget her true heritage. As Croi ventures beyond the forest, her brownie glamour begins to shift and change. Who is she really, who is summoning her, and what do they want? Croi will need every ounce of her newfound magic and her courage as she travels a treacherous path to find her true self and the place in the Otherworld where she belongs.
Perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince, this gorgeous young adult fantasy follows a girl who discovers she’s spent her life under an enchantment hiding her true identity on her quest into the magical Otherworld to unlock her powers and discover her destiny.  
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Title: The Restless Dark by Erica Waters
Release Date: October 4th 2022
Genre: YA Horror
Goodreads
Tf

People say Cloudkiss Canyon is cursed. It takes everything you’ll give it: murders, sins, secrets.
Two years ago, Lucy watched the Cloudkiss Killer leap into its depths, after he attempted to murder her. The canyon took his life, but no one ever found his body. Now, Lucy is back, competing in a macabre contest hosted by a true crime podcast to locate the killer’s remains. If she finds his bones, maybe his ghost will stop haunting her.
She’s not the only contestant hoping to leave something behind.
Sweet-faced Carolina has a rage that prowls beneath her skin.
Friendly, charismatic Maggie has a dark past she’d rather stay buried.
The canyon takes everything you give it, but evil is hard to let go of. As the three girls are drawn together, the hunt for the killer’s bones becomes something more.
The longer they stay in the canyon, the more it whispers to them of their dark impulses, their wicked hearts. The longer they stay in the canyon, the easier it is to believe the whispers, and the harder it is to leave.  
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Title: The Art Of insanity by Christine Webb
Release Date: October 11th 2022
Genre: YA Contemporary
Goodreads
I’m always interested in books with mental health rep, especially from ownvoices authors, and I believe this is! The MC has bipolar. Would definitely like to try  it.

High schooler Natalie Cordova has just been diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. Her mom insists she keep it secret.
Putting up a front and hiding her mental illness from her classmates is going to be the hardest thing Natalie’s ever done. It’s her senior year, and she’s just been selected to present her artwork at a prestigious show. With the stress of performing on her shoulders, it doesn’t help when Natalie notices a boy who makes her heart leap. And then there’s fellow student Ella, who confronts Natalie about her summer car “accident” and pressures her into caring for the world’s ugliest dog. Now Natalie finds herself juggling all kinds of feels and responsibilities. Surely her newly prescribed medication is to blame for the funk she finds herself in. But as Natalie’s plan to self-treat unravels, so does the perfect façade she’s been painting for everyone else.
Written from experience, this contemporary YA is a heartfelt and candid exploration into the shame surrounding mental illness and offers an uplifting narrative where the protagonist doesn’t die at the end. 
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Honourable Mentions

Title: Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell
Release Date: November 1st 2022
Genre: Adult Sci-Fi
Goodreads
It’s set in the same world as Winter’s Orbit!! I am hoping for cameos from my faves. 😂👌🏻 Plus this is more gays in space with fake dating, so that’s what we’re here for.

Rich socialite, inveterate flirt, and walking disaster Tennalhin Halkana can read minds. Tennal, like all neuromodified “readers,” is a security threat on his own. But when controlled, readers are a rare asset. Not only can they read minds, but they can navigate chaotic space, the maelstroms surrounding the gateway to the wider universe.
Conscripted into the military under dubious circumstances, Tennal is placed into the care of Lieutenant Surit Yeni, a duty-bound soldier, principled leader, and the son of a notorious traitor general. Whereas Tennal can read minds, Surit can influence them. Like all other neuromodified “architects,” he can impose his will onto others, and he’s under orders to control Tennal by merging their minds.
Surit accepted a suspicious promotion-track request out of desperation, but he refuses to go through with his illegal orders to sync and control an unconsenting Tennal. So they lie: They fake a sync bond and plan Tennal’s escape.
Their best chance arrives with a salvage-retrieval mission into chaotic space—to the very neuromodifcation lab that Surit’s traitor mother destroyed twenty years ago. And among the rubble is a treasure both terrible and unimaginably powerful, one that upends a decades-old power struggle, and begins a war.
Tennal and Surit can no longer abandon their unit or their world. The only way to avoid life under full military control is to complete the very sync they’ve been faking.
Can two unwilling weapons of war bring about peace?  
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Title: Even Though I Knew The End by C.L. Polk
Release Date: November 8th 2022
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Goodreads
I’ve not read anything by this author yet, but I keep meaning to as they come highly recommended! This is also queer and has vampires so. 😌🙌🏻

C. L. Polk turns their considerable powers to a fantastical noir. A magical detective dives into the affairs of Chicago’s divine monsters to secure a future with the love of her life. This sapphic period piece will dazzle anyone looking for mystery, intrigue, romance, magic, or all of the above.
An exiled augur who sold her soul to save her brother’s life is offered one last job before serving an eternity in hell. When she turns it down, her client sweetens the pot by offering up the one payment she can’t resist — the chance to have a future where she grows old with the woman she loves. To succeed, she is given three days to track down the White City Vampire, Chicago’s most notorious serial killer. If she fails, only hell and heartbreak await. 
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Title: We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds
Release Date: November 29th 2022
Genre: YA Contemporary
Goodreads
Okay this just sounds amazing (PLUS the cover is beautiful) and seems like it will be an emotional and complex family saga. Also queer!

Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she’s uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two.
While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family—whose mother’s murder remains unsolved.
As the three girls grow closer—Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance—the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty’s health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she’s built in Bardell—or if some things are better left buried.
Family secrets, a swoon-worthy romance, and a slow-burn mystery collide in We Deserve Monuments, a YA debut from Jas Hammonds that explores how racial violence can ripple down through generations. 
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Title: Cruel Illusions by Margie Fuston
Release Date: November 1st 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
I mean vampires and secret societies and it is queer…sounds like I need to try it. Also the pitch of Caraval meets Buffy does have me intrigued. 😂

Ever since a vampire murdered her mother, Ava has been determined to get revenge. This all-encompassing drive has given her the fuel she needed to survive foster home after foster home.
But it’s been ten years since anyone’s seen a vampire, and Ava has lost hope that she’ll ever find one…until she stumbles across a hidden magic show where she witnesses impossible illusions. The magicians may not be the bloodsuckers she’s hunting, but Ava is convinced something supernatural is at play, so she sneaks backstage and catches them in acts they can’t explain.
But they’ve been waiting for her.
The magicians reveal they’re part of an ancient secret society with true magic, and Ava has the same power in her blood that they do. If she joins them, they promise to teach her the skills she needs to hunt vampires and avenge her mother. But there’s a catch: if she wants to keep the power they offer, she needs to prove she’s worthy of it. And to do so, she must put on the performance of her life in a sinister and dangerous competition where illusion and reality blur, and the stakes are deadly.
Caraval meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this deliciously dark young adult fantasy about a girl who makes a deal with a magical secret society to enter a potentially deadly competition for the chance to avenge her mother’s death.
 
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Title: The Vermilion Emporium by Jamie Pacton
Release Date: November 1st 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
A Howl’s Moving Castle comp!! And it just sounds utterly fairy-tale-esque and enchanting with sewing dresses out of starlight and it seems like it’ll be a quiet fantasy!

The heart-wrenching story of The Radium Girls meets the enchanting world of Howl’s Moving Castle. Jamie Pacton’s fantasy debut is a story of timeless love and deadly consequences.
It was a day for finding things . . .
On the morning Twain, a lonely boy with a knack for danger, discovers a strand of starlight on the cliffs outside Severon, a mysterious curiosity shop appears in town. Meanwhile, Quinta, the ordinary daughter of an extraordinary circus performer, chases rumors of the shop, The Vermilion Emporium, desperate for a way to live up to her mother’s magical legacy.
When Quinta meets Twain outside the Emporium, two things happen: One, Quinta starts to fall for this starlight boy, who uses his charm to hide his scars. Two, they enter the store and discover a book that teaches them how to weave starlight into lace.
Soon, their lace catches the eye of the Casorina, the ruler of Severon. She commissions Quinta and Twain to make her a starlight dress and will reward them handsomely enough to make their dreams come true. However, they can’t sew a dress without more material, and the secret to starlight’s origins has been lost for centuries. As Quinta and Twain search the Emporium for answers, though, they discover the secret might not have been lost—but destroyed. And likely, for good reason. 
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Title: The Luminaries by Susan Dennard
Release Date: November 1st 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Creepy FORESTSSSSSS. Aka one of my top weaknesses in all books. I got approved for an eARC of this, so will be reading soon!

Hemlock Falls isn’t like other towns. You won’t find it on a map, your phone won’t work here, and the forest outside town might just kill you.
Winnie Wednesday wants nothing more than to join the Luminaries, the ancient order that protects Winnie’s town—and the rest of humanity—from the monsters and nightmares that rise in the forest of Hemlock Falls every night.
Ever since her father was exposed as a witch and a traitor, Winnie and her family have been shunned. But on her sixteenth birthday, she can take the deadly Luminary hunter trials and prove herself true and loyal—and restore her family’s good name. Or die trying.
But in order to survive, Winnie enlists the help of the one person who can help her train: Jay Friday, resident bad boy and Winnie’s ex-best friend. While Jay might be the most promising new hunter in Hemlock Falls, he also seems to know more about the nightmares of the forest than he should. Together, he and Winnie will discover a danger lurking in the forest no one in Hemlock Falls is prepared for.
Not all monsters can be slain, and not all nightmares are confined to the dark.
From Susan Dennard, the New York Times bestselling author of the Witchlands series, comes a haunting and high-octane contemporary fantasy, about the magic it takes to face your fears in a nightmare-filled forest, and the mettle required to face the secrets hiding in the dark corners of your own family.
 
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Title: Lady Night by Rita A. Rubin
Release Date: November 1st 2022
Genre: YA  Fantasy
Goodreads
I read the first book in the series (Amulet of Wishes) earlier this year and it was really lovely, so keen for the sequel!

Derek Draco is finally learning to put the past behind him and enjoy life with his friends and as a Guardian. But when news of a string of recent murders reaches them, Derek finds himself having to return to the place he had hoped to never set foot in again—Windfell. The town where his parents died.
Meanwhile, Jared, the Prince of Aloseria and Derek’s best friend, finds himself helping to uncover a sinister plot brewing in the shadows. It soon becomes clear that not only could the fate of their world be under threat, but that dark plans may lie in wait for his friend.
Lady Night will be the second installment in the Chronicles of the Guardians series.  
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Honourable Mentions

Title: The Poison Season by Mara Rutherford
Release Date: December 6th 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
This gets 10/10 for the cover for being, again, my fave trend of faces and florals. It also seems like it might be a sibling story? Which I always want more of.

Leelo has spent her whole life on Endla, coexisting with the bloodthirsty forest and respecting the poisonous lake that protects her island from outsiders who seek to destroy it. But as much as Leelo cares for her community, she struggles with the knowledge that her brother will be exiled and forced to live with the outsiders unless he gains enchantment powers before his next birthday.
Then comes the day that Leelo sees a young outsider on the verge of drowning in the lake. She knows she is supposed to leave him to his fate, but, instead, she betrays her family, her best friend, and her whole community by helping nurse the young man, Jaren, back to health, understanding that discovery could lead to unthinkable consequences for both of them.
As they grow closer, Leelo and Jaren discover that not all danger comes from beyond the lake—and they can only survive if Leelo is willing to question the very fabric of her society, her people, and herself.  
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Title: A History Of Fear by Luke Dumas
Release Date: December 6th 2022
Genre: Adult Thriller
Goodreads
When the pitch is “harrowing downfall of a tortured graduate student” I know I am wanting it.

Grayson Hale, the most infamous murderer in Scotland, is better known by a different name: the Devil’s Advocate. The twenty-five-year-old American grad student rose to instant notoriety when he confessed to the slaughter of his classmate Liam Stewart, claiming the Devil made him do it.
When Hale is found hanged in his prison cell, officers uncover a handwritten manuscript that promises to answer the question that’s haunted the nation for years: was Hale a lunatic, or had he been telling the truth all along?
Unnervingly, Hale doesn’t fit the bill of a killer. The first-person narrative that centers this novel reveals an acerbic young atheist, newly enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to carry on the legacy of his recently deceased father. In need of cash, he takes a job ghostwriting a mysterious book for a dark stranger, but has misgivings when the project begins to reawaken his satanophobia, a rare condition that causes him to live in terror that the Devil is after him. As he struggles to disentangle fact from fear, Grayson’s world is turned upside-down after events force him to confront his growing suspicion that he’s working for the one he has feared all this time—and that the book is only the beginning of their partnership.​​
A History of Fear is a propulsive foray into the darkness of the human psyche, marrying dread-inducing atmosphere and heart-palpitating storytelling.
An eerie literary suspense debut following the harrowing downfall of a tortured graduate student who’s been nicknamed the Devil’s Advocate for his sensational crime: murdering a classmate, then claiming the Devil made him do it.  
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Title: A Million To One by Adiba Jaigirdar
Release Date: December 13th 2022
Genre: YA Historical Fiction
Goodreads
Heist book!! Heist book!! I’ve only read contemporaries by Adiba Jaigirdar before so am keen to try her historical fiction!

Adiba Jaigirdar, author of one of Time‘s Best YA books of all time, gives Titanic an Ocean’s 8 makeover in a heist for a treasure aboard the infamous ship that sank in the Atlantic many years ago.
A thief. An artist. A acrobat. An actress. While Josefa, Emilie, Hinnah, and Violet seemingly don’t have anything in common, they’re united in one goal: stealing the Rubaiyat, a jewel-encrusted book aboard the RMS Titanic that just might be the golden ticket to solving their problems.
But careless mistakes, old grudges, and new romance threaten to jeopardize everything they’ve worked for and put them in incredible danger when tragedy strikes. While the odds of pulling off the heist are slim, the odds of survival are even slimmer . . .
Perfect for fans of Stalking Jack the Ripper and Girl in the Blue Coat, this high-seas heist from the author of The Henna Wars is an immersive story that makes readers forget one important detail— the ship sinks. 
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Let me know if any of these are on your TBR, or what upcoming releases you’re excited for?

 

2022 New YA & Adult Book Releases (Part 2)

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It’s that time again!! When I help overload your TBR pile.

Unapologetically as always, I must admit. Also the true issue here is that I overload my own tbr pile (I’m currently on a book ban but also 😩 I suffer time to treat myself). At least I’ve caught up on my reading goals this year and I’m currently 6 books ahead an on track for 200 reads for 2022.

You can catch part 1 of my list here, with releases from January to April. Now onwards to the books 👀👇🏻

This is a mix of Young Adult 2022 new upcoming releases with a few adult titles mixed in that I’m keen for!

 

Title: The Book of Night by Holly Black
Release Date: May 3rd 2022
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Goodreads
It’s HOLLY BLACK. I really love her work, and this one seems reminiscent of her YA Curseworker series which is maybe my favourite of her books. I’m excited to see what she’ll do with adult!

In Charlie Hall’s world, shadows can be altered, for entertainment and cosmetic preferences—but also to increase power and influence. You can alter someone’s feelings—and memories—but manipulating shadows has a cost, with the potential to take hours or days from your life. Your shadow holds all the parts of you that you want to keep hidden—a second self, standing just to your left, walking behind you into lit rooms. And sometimes, it has a life of its own.

Charlie is a low-level con artist, working as a bartender while trying to distance herself from the powerful and dangerous underground world of shadow trading. She gets by doing odd jobs for her patrons and the naive new money in her town at the edge of the Berkshires. But when a terrible figure from her past returns, Charlie’s present life is thrown into chaos, and her future seems at best, unclear—and at worst, non-existent. Determined to survive, Charlie throws herself into a maelstrom of secrets and murder, setting her against a cast of doppelgangers, mercurial billionaires, shadow thieves, and her own sister—all desperate to control the magic of the shadows.

With sharp angles and prose, and a sinister bent, Holly Black is a master of shadow and story stitching. Remember while you read, light isn’t playing tricks in Book of Night, the people are.

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Title: The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
Release Date: May 17th 2022
Genre: Adult Epic Fantasy
Goodreads
This sounds very fun with criminals and cowardly princes and a magic lamp so 👀 Would like to try.

Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land.

With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the artifact. Aided by her bodyguard, who has secrets of his own, they must survive ghoul attacks, outwit a vengeful jinn queen, and confront a malicious killer from Loulie’s past. And, in a world where story is reality and illusion is truth, Loulie will discover that everything—her enemy, her magic, even her own past—is not what it seems.

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Title: Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
Release Date: May 10th 2022
Genre: Adult Horror
Goodreads
So I love a good horror and this one the classic “woman with secrets nannies an odd paranormal little kids” which is just a good trope and I like.

Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job in the affluent suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.
Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.
As the days pass, Teddy’s artwork becomes more and more sinister, and his stick figures steadily evolve into more detailed, complex, and lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to suspect these are glimpses of an unsolved murder from long ago, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force lingering in the forest behind the Maxwell’s house.
With help from a handsome landscaper and an eccentric neighbor, Mallory sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy—while coming to terms with a tragedy in her own past—before it’s too late.
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Title: You, Me, And our Heartstrings by Melissa See
Release Date: May 31st 2022
Genre: YA Contemporary
Goodreads
Um disabled YA alert!! Disabled YA!! Celebral palsy and anxiety rep here. Plus music 😭 Feels like it was specifically designed for me.

A fresh and fun teen romance starring a girl with cerebral palsy, and a boy with severe anxiety.
Daisy and Noah have the same plan: use the holiday concert to land a Julliard audition. But when they’re chosen to play a duet for the concert, they worry that their differences will sink their chances.
Noah, a cello prodigy from a long line of musicians, wants to stick to tradition. Daisy, a fiercely independent disabled violinist, is used to fighting for what she wants and likes to take risks. But the two surprise each other when they play. They fall perfectly in tune.
After their performance goes viral, the rest of the country falls for them just as surely as they’re falling for each other. But viral fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. No one seems to care about their talent or their music at all. People have rewritten their love story into one where Daisy is an inspiration for overcoming her cerebral palsy and Noah is a saint for seeing past it.
Daisy is tired of her disability being the only thing people see about her, and all of the attention sends Noah’s anxiety disorder into high speed. They can see their dream coming closer than it’s ever been before. But is the cost suddenly too high? 
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Title: The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor
Release Date: May 3rd 2022
Genre: YA mystery
Goodreads
The way this is an autism book from a big publisher made me preorder instnatly. It also is a murder-solving mystery and the MC is trans.

Sam Sylvester’s not overly optimistic about their recent move to the small town of Astoria, Oregon after a traumatic experience in their last home in the rural Midwest.
Yet Sam’s life seems to be on the upswing after meeting several new friends and a potential love interest in Shep, the pretty neighbour. However, Sam can’t seem to let go of what might have been, and is drawn to investigate the death of a teenage boy in 1980s Astoria. Sam’s convinced he was murdered–especially since Sam’s investigation seems to resurrect some ghosts in the town.
Threatening notes and figures hidden in shadows begin to disrupt Sam’s life. Yet Sam continues to search for the truth. When Sam discovers that they may be closer to a killer than previously known, Sam has a difficult decision to make. Would they risk their new life for a half-lived one?
In this queer contemporary YA mystery, a nonbinary teen with autism realizes they must not only solve a 30-year-old mystery but also face the demons lurking in their past in order to live a satisfying life.
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Title: Summer’s Edge by Dana Mele
Release Date: May 31st 2022
Genre: YA Horror
Goodreads
This is comped to The Haunting of Hill House which immediately has me like 👀 It sounds like a bit of a huanted house with teen group dynamics and a ghost, so I’m keen to read.

Emily Joiner was once part of an inseparable group—she was a sister, a best friend, a lover, and a rival. Summers without Emily were unthinkable. Until the fire burned the lake house to ashes with her inside.
A year later, it’s in Emily’s honour that Chelsea and her four friends decide to return. The house awaits them, meticulously rebuilt. Only, Chelsea is haunted by ghostly visions. Loner Ryan stirs up old hurts and forces golden boy Chase to play peacemaker. Which has perfect hostess Kennedy on edge as eerie events culminate in a stunning accusation: Emily’s death wasn’t an accident. And all the clues needed to find the person responsible are right here.
As old betrayals rise to the surface, Chelsea and her friends have one night to unravel a mystery spanning three summers before a killer among them exacts their revenge.
I Know What You Did Last Summer meets The Haunting of Hill House  in this atmospheric, eerie teen thriller following an estranged group of friends being haunted by their friend who died last summer.
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Honourable Mentions

 

 

Title: Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph white
Release Date: June 7th 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Another queer autistic book (ownvoices I believe) from a mainstream publisher and this sounds unapologetically wild and is also full of monsters. I like. Will take one now thanks and please.

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him—the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world’s population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can’t get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with.
But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately known as the ALC. The ALC’s leader, Nick, is gorgeous, autistic, and a deadly shot, and he knows Benji’s darkest secret: the cult’s bioweapon is mutating him into a monster deadly enough to wipe humanity from the earth once and for all.
Still, Nick offers Benji shelter among his ragtag group of queer teens, as long as Benji can control the monster and use its power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick’s terms…until he discovers the ALC’s mysterious leader has a hidden agenda, and more than a few secrets of his own.
A furious, queer debut novel about embracing the monster within and unleashing its power against your oppressors. Perfect for fans of Gideon the Ninth and Annihilation. 
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Title: Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane
Release Date: June 7th 2022
Genre: Adult Fantasy Retelling
Goodreads
This is an Achilles retelling as a transwoman!! Absolutely so keen for it and have preordered this one too. Although I expect it to be super different from Song Of Achilles (no Patroclus romance).

Achilles has fled her home and her vicious Myrmidon clan to live as a woman with the kallai, the transgender priestesses of Great Mother Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit the “prince” Achilles for a war against the Hittites, she prepares to die rather than fight as a man. However, her divine mother, Athena, intervenes, transforming her body into the woman’s body she always longed for, and promises her everything: glory, power, fame, victory in war, and, most importantly, a child born of her own body. Reunited with her beloved cousin, Patroklos, and his brilliant wife, the sorceress Meryapi, Achilles sets out to war with a vengeance.
But the gods—a dysfunctional family of abusive immortals that have glutted on human sacrifices for centuries—have woven ancient schemes more blood-soaked and nightmarish than Achilles can imagine. At the center of it all is the cruel, immortal Helen, who sees Achilles as a worthy enemy after millennia of ennui and emptiness. In love with her newfound nemesis, Helen sets out to destroy everything and everyone Achilles cherishes, seeking a battle to the death.
An innovative spin on a familiar tale, this is the Trojan War unlike anything ever told, and an Achilles whose vulnerability is revealed by the people she chooses to fight…and chooses to trust.
Drawing on ancient texts and modern archeology to reveal the trans woman’s story hidden underneath the well-known myths of The Iliad, Maya Deane’s Wrath Goddess Sing weaves a compelling, pitilessly beautiful vision of Achilles’ vanished world, perfect for fans of Song of Achilles and the Inheritance trilogy. 
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Title: Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid
Release Date: June 21st 2022
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Goodreads
I’ve heard this one is very raw and powerful, and I also have the author’s debut (still need to read it oops) but this is pitched as a “gothic retelling of the Juniper tree” so YES.

A gruesome curse. A city in upheaval. A monster with unquenchable appetites.
Marlinchen and her two sisters live with their wizard father in a city shifting from magic to industry. As Oblya’s last true witches, she and her sisters are little more than a tourist trap as they treat their clients with archaic remedies and beguile them with nostalgic charm. Marlinchen spends her days divining secrets in exchange for rubles and trying to placate her tyrannical, xenophobic father, who keeps his daughters sequestered from the outside world. But at night, Marlinchen and her sisters sneak out to enjoy the city’s amenities and revel in its thrills, particularly the recently established ballet theater, where Marlinchen meets a dancer who quickly captures her heart.
As Marlinchen’s late-night trysts grow more fervent and frequent, so does the threat of her father’s rage and magic. And while Oblya flourishes with culture and bustles with enterprise, a monster lurks in its midst, borne of intolerance and resentment and suffused with old-world power. Caught between history and progress and blood and desire, Marlinchen must draw upon her own magic to keep her city safe and find her place within it.
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Title: Not Good For Maidens by Tori Bovalino
Release Date: June 14th 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
A goblin market retelling, and I have to admit the cover is totally my bookstagram aesthetic so 🤣 I have my eye on this one.

Louisa doesn’t believe in magic, until her teenage aunt Neela is kidnapped to the goblin market.
The market is a place of magic, where twisting streets, succulent fruits, glimmering jewels, and death are on offer to the unwary human. An enticing place that her mother and aunt barely escaped seventeen years ago, paying a terrible price.
With only three days before the market disappears, Lou must navigate the treacherous market, controlled by bloodthirsty goblins who crave vengeance against her family. She must learn the songs and tricks of the goblins to save Neela, or the market might just end up claiming her too.
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Title: Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia
Release Date: June 28th 2022
Genre: YA Horror, Thriller
Goodreads
You know I am on a horror kick lately!! I also really liked this author’s debut, Made You Up, so I’d love to read more (plus the author is illustrating this).

From acclaimed author Francesca Zappia, American Horror Story meets the dark comedy of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis as Cat searches for a way to escape her high school. Katzenjammer is a tale of family, love, tragedy, and masks—the ones others make for us, and the ones we make for ourselves. Eerie and thought-provoking, this novel will haunt fans of Chelsie Pitcher’s This Lie Will Kill You and E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars. Features illustrations by the author throughout.
Cat lives in her high school. She never leaves, and for a long time her school has provided her with everything she needs. But now things are changing. The hallways contract and expand along with the school’s breathing, and the showers in the bathroom run a bloody red. Cat’s best friend is slowly turning into cardboard, and instead of a face, Cat has a cat mask made of her own hardened flesh/
Cat doesn’t remember why she is trapped in her school or why half of them—Cat included—are slowly transforming. Escaping has always been the one impossibility in her school’s upside-down world. But to save herself from the eventual self-destruction all the students face, Cat must find the way out. And to do that, she’ll have to remember what put her there in the first place.
Told in chapters alternating between the past and the present, Francesca Zappia weaves a spine-tingling, suspenseful, and haunting story about tragedy and the power of memories. Much like the acclaimed Eliza and Her Monsters, Katzenjammer features black-and-white illustrations by the author throughout the novel. Fans of Marieke Nijkamp’s This Is Where It Ends and Karen McManus’s One of Us Is Lying will lose themselves in the pages of this novel—or maybe in the treacherous hallways of the school. 
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Title: Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert
Release Date: June 28th 2022
Genre: YA Paranormal
Goodreads
The author of the Hazelwood is writing something new! I have to admit I really don’t like the cover unfortunately 💀 So might do this one via audiobook. But I think it’s a mix of mystery x horror also which is great.

THE SUBURBS, RIGHT NOW
Seventeen-year-old Ivy’s summer break kicks off with an accident, a punishment, and a mystery: a stranger whose appearance in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, heralds a string of increasingly unsettling events. As the days pass, Ivy grapples with eerie offerings, corroded memories, and a secret she’s always known—that there’s more to her mother than meets the eye.
THE CITY, BACK THEN . . .
Dana has always been perceptive. And the summer she turns sixteen, with the help of her best friend and an ambitious older girl, her gifts bloom into a heady fling with the supernatural, set in a city of magical possibilities and secret mystics. As the trio’s aspirations darken, they find themselves speeding toward a violent breaking point.
Years after it began, Ivy and Dana’s shared story will come down to a reckoning among a daughter, a mother, and the dark forces they never should’ve messed with.
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Honourable Mentions

Title: They Drown our Daughters by Katrina Monroe
Release Date: July 12th 2022
Genre: Adult horror
Goodreads
Atmospheric horror with a sea setting and an old lighthouse!! Say no more just hand it to me. I also believe it’s queer.

For fans of Jennifer McMahon and Silvia Moreno-Garcia comes a haunting and atmospheric new novel from debut author Katrina Monroe.
They say Cape Disappointment is haunted.
That if you can hear the call of the water
It’s already too late…
Tourists used to flock to Cape Disappointment in droves to visit the rocky shoreline and the creaky old lighthouse. But the tourists are gone now, and when Meredith Strand returns to her childhood home on the eve of her divorce, young daughter in tow, the Cape seems more haunted by regret than any malevolent force.
But her mother, suffering from Alzheimer’s, is convinced the stories are real. Not only is there something in the water, but it’s watching them. Waiting for them. Reaching out to Meredith’s daughter the way it has to every woman in their line for generations—ready to reclaim what once was stolen.
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Title: Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne
Release Date: July 12th 2022
Genre: YA Paranormal
Goodreads
More Ya paranormal with horror vibes just for me — also the cover is fantastic and I may have slipped and preordered this one too.

The sleepy little farm that Laurel Early grew up on has awakened. The woods are shifting, the soil is dead under her hands, and her bone pile just stood up and walked away.
After dropping out of college, all she wanted was to resume her life as a tobacco hand and taxidermist and try not to think about the boy she can’t help but love. Instead, a devil from her past has returned to court her, as he did her late mother years earlier. Now, Laurel must unravel her mother’s terrifying legacy and tap into her own innate magic before her future and the fate of everyone she loves is doomed.
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Title: Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi
Release Date: July 19th 2022
Genre: Adult Horror
Goodreads
This one is pitched as similar to the friend group in IT 👀🙌🏻 And confronting your childhood horrors … plus hopefully a haunted house considering the cover.

For nearly two decades, Jamie Warren has been running from darkness. He’s haunted by a traumatic childhood and the guilt at having disappeared from his disabled brother’s life. But then a series of unusual events reunites him with his estranged brother and their childhood friends, and none of them can deny the sense of fate that has seemingly drawn them back together.
Nor can they deny the memories of that summer, so long ago – the strange magic taught to them by an even stranger man, and the terrible act that has followed them all into adulthood. In the light of new danger, they must confront their past by facing their futures, and hunting down a man who may very well be a monster.
Perfect for fans of Stephen King’s IT, a group of friends return to their hometown to confront a nightmare they first stumbled on as teenagers in this mesmerizing odyssey of terror.
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Title: Her Dark Wings by Melinda Salisbury
Release Date: July 7th 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Modern Hades x Persephone retelling? 👀 Plus I have to say that cover is a feast for the eyes. I also really enjoyed the author’s historical horror Hold Back The Tide a few years ago (totally recommend it) so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this!

The great love of Corey’s life has always been her best friend, Bree: closer than sisters, their bond is unbreakable.
Or so Corey believes, until Bree betrays her, and Corey’s world is shattered.
Corey finds herself heartbroken, furious and alone…
Only to discover that the Underworld – and Hades, Lord of the Dead – is closer than she thinks…
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Title: A Darkness At The Door (#2) by Intisar Khanani
Release Date: July 21st 2022
Genre: YA Epic Fantasy
Goodreads
The Theft Of Sunlight (book 1) was my absolute favourite last year!! It was just such a refreshing and excellent YA fantasy, with thoughtful themes and deep world building. So I absolutely need the sequel 😩👌🏻💛 Hyped for this.

Only Rae knows the extent of the corruption at the heart of the kingdom of Menaiya, from the noble lord who betrayed her, to the Circle of Mages whose wards protect the slavers from discovery. Injured and imprisoned on a slave ship, Rae’s options are quickly running out. When a desperate escape attempt goes terribly wrong, she finds herself indebted to a terrifying Fae sorceress.
Now Rae will not rest until she has rescued her fellow prisoners and freed her land from the darkness that has taken hold. To succeed, she’ll need every ally she can find—including Bren, the thief who may have stolen her heart. But Bren is hiding his own bloody secrets, and the curses that encircle Rae have sunk their claws into her mind. With her debts coming due and time running short, all the truths in the world may not be enough to save her kingdom, or herself.
“I’ve been cursed, betrayed, and sold into slavery – but the truth I carry can’t be allowed to die.”
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Title: A Strange And Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows
Release Date: July 26th 2022
Genre: Adult Epic Fantasy
Goodreads
What I need in life is more queer epic fantasy and this one has political arranged marriages and I have to say the cover is Stunning.

Velasin vin Aaro never planned to marry at all, let alone a girl from neighboring Tithena. When an ugly confrontation reveals his preference for men, Vel fears he’s ruined the diplomatic union before it can even begin. But while his family is ready to disown him, the Tithenai envoy has a different solution: for Vel to marry his former intended’s brother instead.
Caethari Aeduria always knew he might end up in a political marriage, but his sudden betrothal to a man from Ralia, where such relationships are forbidden, comes as a shock.
With an unknown faction willing to kill to end their new alliance, Vel and Cae have no choice but to trust each other. Survival is one thing, but love—as both will learn—is quite another.
Byzantine politics, lush sexual energy, and a queer love story that is by turns sweet and sultry. A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is an exploration of gender, identity, and self-worth. It is a book that will live in your heart long after you turn the last page. (
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Title: The Book Of Gothel by Mary McMyne
Release Date: July 26th 2022
Genre: Adult Fairy Tale Retelling
Goodreads
A Rapunzel retelling (these feel so rare??) but by the witch’s perspective!! I absolutely love it when retellings come from another POV so this was slammed instantly on my wishlist.

Everyone knows the tale of Rapunzel in her tower, but do you know the story of the witch who put her there?
Haelewise has always lived under the shadow of her mother, Hedda—a woman who will do anything to keep her daughter protected. For with her strange black eyes and even stranger fainting spells, Haelewise is shunned by her medieval village, and her only solace lies in the stories her mother tells of child-stealing witches, of princes in wolf-skins, of an ancient tower cloaked in mist, where women will find shelter if they are brave enough to seek it.
Then, Hedda dies, and Haelewise is left unmoored. With nothing left for her in her village, she sets out to find the legendary tower her mother used to speak of—a place called Gothel, where Haelewise meets a wise woman willing to take her under her wing.
But Haelewise is not the only woman to seek refuge at Gothel. It’s also a haven for a girl named Rika, who carries with her a secret the Church strives to keep hidden. A secret that unlocks a dark world of ancient spells and murderous nobles behind the world Haelewise has always known…
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Honourable Mentions

Title: The Drowned Woods by Emily  Lloyd-Jones
Release Date: August 16th 2022
Genre: YA
Goodreads
Okay I’m genuinely so hyped for this because I LOVED Bone Houses, and this is set in the same world but following new characters. And it has curses and magic and alllll the good things. You know I preordered. 😪👌🏻

Once upon a time, the kingdoms of Wales were rife with magic and conflict, and eighteen-year-old Mererid “Mer” is well-acquainted with both. She is the last living water diviner and has spent years running from the prince who bound her into his service. Under the prince’s orders, she located the wells of his enemies, and he poisoned them without her knowledge, causing hundreds of deaths. After discovering what he had done, Mer went to great lengths to disappear from his reach. Then Mer’s old handler returns with a proposition: use her powers to bring down the very prince that abused them both.
The best way to do that is to destroy the magical well that keeps the prince’s lands safe. With a motley crew of allies, including a fae-cursed young man, the lady of thieves, and a corgi that may or may not be a spy, Mer may finally be able to steal precious freedom and peace for herself. After all, a person with a knife is one thing…but a person with a cause can topple kingdoms.
The Drowned Woods—set in the same world as The Bone Houses but with a whole new, unforgettable cast of characters—is part heist novel, part dark fairy tale. 
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Title: These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall
Release Date: August 9th 2022
Genre: YA Horror
Goodreads
This is the Haunting of Hill House MEETS KNIVES OUT. EXCUSE ME YES. Literally so excited for this I wheeze. 😂 I haven’t read the author’s previous book yet but I shall do that asap.

Helen Vaughan doesn’t know why she and her mother left their ancestral home at Harrowstone Hall, called Harrow, or why they haven’t spoken to their extended family since. So when her grandfather dies, she’s shocked to learn that he has left everything—the house, the grounds, and the money—to her. The inheritance comes with one condition: she must stay on the grounds of Harrow for one full year, or she’ll be left with nothing.
There is more at stake than money. For as long as she can remember, Harrow has haunted Helen’s dreams—and now those dreams have become a waking nightmare. Helen knows that if she is going to survive the year, she needs to uncover the secrets of Harrow. Why is the house built like a labyrinth? What is digging the holes that appear in the woods each night?And why does the house itself seem to be making her sick?

With each twisted revelation, Helen questions what she knows about Harrow, her family, and even herself. She no longer wonders if she wants to leave…but if she can.

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Title: The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope
Release Date: August 9th 2022
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Goodreads
1920s Jazz age and magic and heists? Sign me up, quite frankly. The pitch also says it’s full of folklore so I’m keen about that as well.

Clara Johnson talks to spirits, a gift that saved her during her darkest moments in a Washington D. C. jail. Now a curse that’s left her indebted to the cunning spirit world. So, when the Empress, the powerful spirit who holds her debt, offers her an opportunity to gain her freedom, a desperate Clara seizes the chance. The task: steal a magical ring from the wealthiest woman in the District.
Clara can’t pull off this daring heist alone. She’ll need help from an unlikely team, from a jazz musician capable of hypnotizing with a melody to an aging vaudeville actor who can change his face, to pull off the impossible. But as they encounter increasingly difficult obstacles, a dangerous spirit interferes at every turn. Conflict in the spirit world is leaking into the human one and along D.C’.s legendary Black Broadway, a mystery unfolds—one that not only has repercussions for Clara but all of the city’s residents.
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Title: The Undead Truth of Us by Britney S. Lewis
Release Date: Jf
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
The cover fits into my aesthetic of: flowers and faces. Which I collect and am unashamed about it. but also zombies!! Also I think she has a romance with an undead boy so that seems cute.

Death was everywhere. They all stared at me, bumping into one another and slowly coming forward.
Sixteen-year-old Zharie Young is absolutely certain her mother morphed into a zombie before her untimely death, but she can’t seem to figure out why. Why her mother died, why her aunt doesn’t want her around, why all her dreams seem suddenly, hopelessly out of reach. And why, ever since that day, she’s been seeing zombies everywhere.
Then Bo moves into her apartment building―tall, skateboard in hand, freckles like stars, and an undeniable charm. Z wants nothing to do with him, but when he transforms into a half zombie right before her eyes, something feels different. He contradicts everything she thought she knew about monsters, and she can’t help but wonder if getting to know him might unlock the answers to her mother’s death.
As Zharie sifts through what’s real and what’s magic, she discovers a new truth about the world: Love can literally change you―for good or for dead.
In this surrealist journey of grief, fear, and hope, Britney S. Lewis’s debut novel explores love, zombies, and everything in between in an intoxicating amalgam of the real and the fantastic. 
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Title: Babel by R.F. Kuang
Release Date: August 23rd 2022
Genre: Adult Dark Academia
Goodreads
Like of course I’m SO curious for this one because dark academia is my thing (and the author has shot to staggering stardom so fast). I wasn’t the biggest fan of Poppy War but still liked reading it, so…👀👀

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation — also known as Babel.
Babel is the world’s center of translation and, more importantly, of silver-working: the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation through enchanted silver bars, to magical effect. Silver-working has made the British Empire unparalleled in power, and Babel’s research in foreign languages serves the Empire’s quest to colonize everything it encounters.
Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, is a fairytale for Robin; a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge serves power, and for Robin, a Chinese boy raised in Britain, serving Babel inevitably means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to sabotaging the silver-working that supports imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide: Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence? What is he willing to sacrifice to bring Babel down?
Babel — a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell — grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of translation as a tool of empire. 
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Title: A Taste of Iron And Gold by Alexandra Rowland
Release Date: August 30th 2022
Genre: Adult Epic Fantasy
Goodreads
So this is the royalty + the bodyguard romance trope, and make it queer, and I’ve heard (I believe) that the prince has severe anxiety?! All the good things.

Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, finds himself at odds with one of the most powerful ambassadors at court—the body-father of the queen’s new child—in an altercation which results in his humiliation.
To prove his loyalty to the queen, his sister, Kadou takes responsibility for the investigation of a break-in at one of their guilds, with the help of his newly appointed bodyguard, the coldly handsome Evemer, who seems to tolerate him at best. In Arasht, where princes can touch-taste precious metals with their fingers and myth runs side by side with history, counterfeiting is heresy, and the conspiracy they discover could cripple the kingdom’s financial standing and bring about its ruin.
The Goblin Emperor meets “Magnificent Century” in Alexandra Rowland’s A Taste of Gold and Iron, where a queer central romance unfolds in a fantasy world reminiscent of the Ottoman Empire.
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Title: Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
Release Date: August 23rd 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Fantasy murder mystery with gothic vibes and mysterious wealthy estates? Yesss. Also I really love this UK cover. Everything about it is 😙👌🏻

For as long as Signa Farrow has been alive, the people in her life have fallen like stars . . .
Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each more interested in her wealth than her well-being – and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy.
Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger, and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.
Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer, though, is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful – and more irresistible – than she ever dared imagine.
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Honourable Mentions

Let me know if any of these books caught your eye, or which ones you plan to read too!

 

2022 New Book Releases For Your TBR Pile (And Mine, Honestly)

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Not me adding to your TBR pile again!!

But you know the drill 😪🙌🏻 New year — new book lists. This year I’m mixing things up a little in that I’m sharing both YA and Adult releases I’m quite excited for. Basically this is a chance for us to pine over more books 😭  it will never end, not until we are broke!!! Good thing I am already broke so I’ll be just pining wistfully for most of these.

I’m always on the look out for more recommendations too, so feel free to tell me what books you are excited for.

Featuring January to April new Young Adult & Adult book releases!

Title: The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman
Release Date: January 4th 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Look I’m particularly here for anything to do with reuniting royal siblings. Sounds exactly my thing!!

“Magic, a prized resource, is the only thing between peace and war. When magic runs out, four estranged royal siblings must find a new source before their country is swallowed by invading forces. The first in an Indian-inspired duology.
Vira is desperate to get out of her mother’s shadow and establish her legacy as a revered queen of Ashoka. But with the country’s only quarry running out of magic–a precious resource that has kept Ashoka safe from conflict–she can barely protect her citizens from the looming threat of war. And if her enemies discover this, they’ll stop at nothing to seize the last of the magic.
Vira’s only hope is to find a mysterious object of legend: the Ivory Key, rumored to unlock a new source of magic. But in order to infiltrate enemy territory and retrieve it, she must reunite with her siblings, torn apart by the different paths their lives have taken. Each of them has something to gain from finding the Ivory Key–and even more to lose if they fail. Ronak plans to sell it to the highest bidder in exchange for escape from his impending political marriage. Kaleb, falsely accused of assassinating the former maharani needs it to clear his name. And Riya, a runaway who cut all family ties, wants the Key to prove her loyalty to the rebels who want to strip the nobility of its power.  They must work together to survive the treacherous journey. But with each sibling harboring secrets and their own agendas, the very thing that brought them together could tear apart their family–and their world–for good. 
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Title: Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
Release Date: January 11th 2022
Genre: Adult fantasy
Goodreads
I’ve had this preordered for so long, am literally pining for it. Gorgeous cover and legend-based fantasy is a yes please.

“A captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of Chang’e, the Chinese moon goddess, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm.

Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.

Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor’s son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince.

To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies across the earth and skies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos. 

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Title: Servant Mage by Kate Elliott
Release Date: January 18th 2022
Genre: Adult Fantasy Novella
Goodreads
I’ve been getting into novellas more lately and I just love the premise of this one (plus it is queer!!)

“Fellion is a Lamplighter, able to provide illumination through magic. A group of rebel Monarchists free her from indentured servitude and take her on a journey to rescue trapped compatriots from an underground complex of mines.
Along the way they get caught up in a conspiracy to kill the latest royal child and wipe out the Monarchist movement for good.
But Fellion has more than just her Lamplighting skills up her sleeve…
In Kate Elliott’s Servant Mage, a lowly fire mage finds herself entangled in an empire-spanning conspiracy on her way to discovering her true power. 
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Title: Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz
Release Date: January 18th 2022
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Goodreads
ngl I am obsessed with the angle of this cover! It’s so so clever. Also it promises gothic and resurrections so here for it.

A gothic tale full of mystery and romance about a willful female surgeon, a resurrection man who sells bodies for a living, and the buried secrets they must uncover together.
Edinburgh, 1817. Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.
Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die.
When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, the university will allow her to enroll. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books – she’ll need bodies to study, corpses to dissect.
Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living, then.
But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets. Hazel and Jack work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society. 
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Title: Icebreaker by A.L. Graziadei
Release Date: January 18th 2022
Genre: YA Contemporary
Goodreads
All For The Game gave me a strange love for queer sports novels, which is incredible considering I do not sport 😭

“A. L. Graziadei’s Icebreaker is an irresistible YA debut about two hockey players fighting to be the best—and the romance that catches them by surprise along the way.
Seventeen-year-old Mickey James III is a college freshman, a brother to five sisters, and a hockey legacy. With a father and a grandfather who have gone down in NHL history, Mickey is almost guaranteed the league’s top draft spot.
The only person standing in his way is Jaysen Caulfield, a contender for the #1 spot and Mickey’s infuriating (and infuriatingly attractive) teammate. When rivalry turns to something more, Mickey will have to decide what he really wants, and what he’s willing to risk for it.
This is a story about falling in love, finding your team (on and off the ice), and choosing your own path. 
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Honourable Mentions

Title: This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi
Release Date: February 1st 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Very keen to see Mafi’s first (I think?) foray into epic fantasy!! Am definitely expecting lush writing and world building.

Clashing empires, forbidden romance, and a long-forgotten queen destined to save her people—bestselling author Tahereh Mafi’s first in an epic, romantic trilogy inspired by Persian mythology.
To all the world, Alizeh is a disposable servant, not the long-lost heir to an ancient Jinn kingdom forced to hide in plain sight.
The crown prince, Kamran, has heard the prophecies foretelling the death of his king. But he could never have imagined that the servant girl with the strange eyes, the girl he can’t put out of his mind, would one day soon uproot his kingdom—and the world.
Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, Tomi Adeyemi, and Sabaa Tahir, this is the explosive first book in a new fantasy trilogy from the New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-nominated author Tahereh Mafi. 
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Title: Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor
Release Date: February 1st 2022
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Goodreads
I saw the author note that the book contains 3 characters on the aro/ace spectrum!! It also sounds very darkly magical so 👀

In Rosiee Thor’s lavish fantasy novel with a Jazz Age spark, a politically savvy teen must weigh her desire to climb the social ladder against her heart in a world where magic buys votes.
Flare is power.
With only a drop of flare, one can light the night sky with fireworks . . . or burn a building to the ground — and seventeen-year-old Ingrid Ellis wants her fair share.
Ingrid doesn’t have a family fortune, monetary or magical, but at least she has a plan: Rise to the top on the arm of Linden Holt, heir to a hefty political legacy and the largest fortune of flare in all of Candesce. Her only obstacle is Linden’s father who refuses to acknowledge her.
So when Senator Holt announces his run for president, Ingrid uses the situation to her advantage. She strikes a deal to spy on the senator’s opposition in exchange for his approval and the status she so desperately craves. But the longer Ingrid wears two masks, the more she questions where her true allegiances lie.
Will she stand with the Holts, or will she forge her own path? 
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Title: A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
Release Date: February 3rd 2022
Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy
Goodreads
I’m partially lured by the cover, but also keen to get into more whimsical adult fantasy and this seems perfect.

Enchantments run deep on the magical Isle of Cadence: gossip is carried by the wind, plaid shawls can be as strong as armour, and the smallest cut of a knife can instil fathomless fear. The capricious spirits that live there find mirth in the lives of the humans who call the land home, but that mischief turns to malevolence as girls begin to go missing.
Adaira, heiress of the east, knows the spirits only answer to a bard’s music, enticing them to return the missing girls. But there’s only one bard capable of drawing the spirits forth by song: her childhood enemy Jack Tamerlaine.
He hasn’t stepped foot on Cadence in ten long years, content to study music at the mainland university, but as Jack and Adaira reluctantly work together it becomes apparent the trouble with the spirits is far more sinister than first thought and an older, darker secret lurks beneath the surface, threatening to undo them all.
Sarah J Maas’s Crescent City meets Uprooted in acclaimed YA author Rebecca Ross’s brilliant first adult fantasy. 
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Title: Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist
Release Date: February 22nd 2022
Genre: Adult Gothic Literary
Goodreads
I’m honestly obsessed with how badly I want this book. Gothic literary thriller from a trans author with Great Gatsby vibes? Yes please.

From debut author Kit Mayquist, a propulsive and atmospheric modern Gothic with all the splendor of The Great Gatsby . . . and all the secrets, lies, and darkness that opulence can hide.
Med school dropout Lena is desperate for a job, any job, to help her parents, who are approaching bankruptcy after her father was injured and laid off nearly simultaneously. So when she is offered a position, against all odds, working for one of Boston’s most elite families, the illustrious and secretive Verdeaus, she knows she must accept it—no matter how bizarre the interview or how vague the job description.
By day, she is assistant to the family doctor and his charge, Jonathan, the sickly, poetic, drunken heir to the family empire, who is as difficult as his illness is mysterious. By night, Lena discovers the more sinister side of the family, as she works overtime at their lavish parties, helping to hide their self-destructive tendencies . . . and trying not to fall for Jonathan’s alluring sister, Audrey. But when she stumbles upon the knowledge that the Verdeau patriarch is the one responsible for the ruin of her own family, Lena vows to get revenge—a poison-filled quest that leads her further into this hedonistic world than she ever bargained for, forcing her to decide how much—and who—she’s willing to sacrifice for payback.
The perfect next read for fans of Mexican Gothic, Tripping Arcadia is a page-turning and shocking tale with an unforgettable protagonist that explores family legacy and inheritance, the sacrifices we must make to get by in today’s world, and the intoxicating, dangerous power of wealth.  
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Title: The Girl Beneath The Sea  by Axie Oh
Release Date: February 22nd 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
I have this preordered and the cover is an absolute work of art. But it just sounds like the gorgeous style of fantasy I love.

Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering.
Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.
Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.
But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…  
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Title: Only A Monster by Vanessa Len
Release Date: February 22nd
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Goodreads
I was super lucky to get a review copy of this one and I am ready for monster content. This is also by an Asian-Australian author!

It should have been the perfect summer. Sent to stay with her late mother’s eccentric family in London, sixteen-year-old Joan is determined to enjoy herself. She loves her nerdy job at the historic Holland House, and when her super cute co-worker Nick asks her on a date, it feels like everything is falling into place.
But she soon learns the truth. Her family aren’t just eccentric: they’re monsters, with terrifying, hidden powers. And Nick isn’t just a cute boy: he’s a legendary monster slayer, who will do anything to bring them down.
As she battles Nick, Joan is forced to work with the beautiful and ruthless Aaron Oliver, heir to a monster family that hates her own. She’ll have to embrace her own monstrousness if she is to save herself, and her family. Because in this story . . .
. . . she is not the hero. 
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Title: Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams
Release Date: February 8th 2022
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Goodreads
Beautiful cover and it’s a haunted gothic so what more can I say!!

As infants, twin sisters Charlie Yates and Magnolia Heathwood were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents, who died for loving across the color line. Now, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, Charlie is a young Black organizer in Harlem, while white-passing Magnolia is the heiress to a cotton plantation in rural Georgia.
Magnolia knows nothing of her racial heritage, but secrets are hard to keep in a town haunted by the ghosts of its slave-holding past. When Magnolia finally learns the truth, her reflection mysteriously disappears from mirrors—the sign of a terrible curse. Meanwhile, in Harlem, Charlie’s beloved grandmother falls ill. Her final wish is to be buried back home in Georgia—and, unbeknownst to Charlie, to see her long-lost granddaughter, Magnolia Heathwood, one last time. So Charlie travels into the Deep South, confronting the land of her worst nightmares—and Jim Crow segregation.
The sisters reunite as teenagers in the deeply haunted town of Eureka, Georgia, where ghosts linger centuries after their time and dangers lurk behind every mirror. They couldn’t be more different, but they will need each other to put the hauntings of the past to rest, to break the mirrors’ deadly curse—and to discover the meaning of sisterhood in a racially divided land. 
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Honourable Mentions

Title: Edgewood by Kristen Ciccarelli
Release Date: March 1st 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
I am absolutely here for any and all foresty/floral covers, so this called to me. I also really enjoyed the author’s debut series, The Last Namsara!

“No matter how far she runs, the forest of Edgewood always comes for Emeline Lark. The scent of damp earth curls into her nose when she sings and moss creeps across the stage. It’s as if the woods of her childhood, shrouded in folklore and tall tales, are trying to reclaim her. But Emeline has no patience for silly superstitions.
When her grandfather disappears, leaving only a mysterious orb in his wake, the stories Emeline has always scoffed at suddenly seem less foolish. She enters the forest she has spent years trying to escape, only to have Hawthorne Fell, a handsome and brooding tithe collector, try to dissuade her from searching.
Refusing to be deterred, Emeline finds herself drawn to the court of the fabled Wood King himself. She makes a deal—her voice for her grandfather’s freedom. Little does she know, she’s stumbled into the middle of a curse much bigger than herself, one that threatens the existence of this eerie world she’s trapped in, along with the devastating boy who feels so familiar.
With the help of Hawthorne—an enemy turned reluctant ally who she grows closer to each day—Emeline sets out to not only save her grandfather’s life, but to right past wrongs, and in the process, discover her true voice.
Haunting and romantic, Kristen Ciccarelli’s Edgewood is an exciting novel from a bold, unforgettable voice in fantasy. 
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Title: Sundial by Catriona Ward
Release Date: March 1st 2022
Genre: Adult Horror
Goodreads
I badly want to read more horror and this already promises two unreliable narrators worried about each other…!? Sounds MESSY. I’m in.

“You can’t escape what’s in your blood…
All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind.
She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.
Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie fears that only one of them will leave Sundial alive…
The mother and daughter embark on a dark, desert journey to the past in the hopes of redeeming their future.
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Title: The Book of Living Secrets by Madeleine Roux
Release Date: March 1st
Genre: YA Gothic Fantasy
Goodreads
How about falling into your favourite novel!! 10/10 need this 😂

“This story follows two girls who transport themselves into the world of their favorite book only to encounter the sinister alternate reality that awaits them.
No matter how different best friends Adelle and Connie are, one thing they’ve always had in common is their love of a little-known gothic romance novel called Moira. So when the girls are tempted by a mysterious stranger to enter the world of the book, they hardly suspect it will work. But suddenly they are in the world of Moira, living among characters they’ve obsessed about for years.
Except…all is not how they remembered it. The world has been turned upside down: The lavish balls and star-crossed love affairs are now interlaced with unspeakable horrors. The girls realize that something dark is lurking behind their foray into fiction—and they will have to rewrite their own arcs if they hope to escape this nightmare with their lives. 
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Title: One For All by Lillie Lainoff
Release Date: March 8th 2022
Genre: YA Epic Fantasy Retelling
Goodreads
Ownvoices fantasy with chronic illness/disability rep!! Unheard of!! I’m so excited for this, and hope it’s the beginning of more.

“An OwnVoices, gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.
Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone in town thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl”; even her mother is desperate to marry her off for security. But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father—a former Musketeer and her greatest champion.
Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for a new kind of Musketeer: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a swordfight.
With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels for the first time like she has a purpose, like she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her first target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming, and breathlessly attractive—and he might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to lean on her friends, listen to her own body, and decide where her loyalties lie…or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.
This debut novel is a fierce, whirlwind adventure about the depth of found family, the strength that goes beyond the body, and the determination it takes to fight for what you love.  
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Title: The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong
Release Date: March 8th 2022
Genre: Adult Sci Fi
Goodreads
Queer Adult Scifi here with espionage and cons 👀👌🏻 This one definitely has me intrigued, especially with the outer-space setting.

“Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species fugitive to blend in: the pleasure moon. Here, everyone just wants to be lost in the party. It doesn’t take long for him to catch the attention of the crime boss who owns the resort-casino where he lands a circus job. When the boss gets wind of the bounty on Jes’ head, he makes an offer: do anything and everything asked of him, or face vivisection.
With no other options, Jes fulfills the requests: espionage, torture, demolition. But when the boss sets the circus up to take the fall for his about-to-get-busted narcotics operation, Jes and his friends decide to bring the mobster down together. And if Jes can also avoid going back to being the prize subject of a scientist who can’t wait to dissect him? Even better. 
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Title: The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller
Release Date: March 22nd 2022
Genre: Adult Epic Fantasy
Goodreads
Leave me alone with my obsession for creepy skeletons and floral covers 😩👌🏻 also murder mystery epic fantasy with witches, so yes.

“Charm is a witch, and she is alone. The last of a line of conquered necromantic workers, now confined within the yard of regrown bone trees at Orchard House, and the secrets of their marrow.
Charm is a prisoner, and a survivor. Charm tends the trees and their clattering fruit for the sake of her children, painstakingly grown and regrown with its fruit: Shame, Justice, Desire, Pride, and Pain.
Charm is a whore, and a madam. The wealthy and powerful of Borenguard come to her house to buy time with the girls who aren’t real.
Except on Tuesdays, which is when the Emperor himself lays claim to his mistress, Charm herself.
But now–Charm is also the only person who can keep an empire together, as the Emperor summons her to his deathbed, and charges her with choosing which of his awful, faithless sons will carry on the empire—by discovering which one is responsible for his own murder.
If she does this last thing, she will finally have what has been denied her since the fall of Inshil — her freedom. But if she does, she will also be betraying the ghosts past and present that live on within her heart.
Charm must choose. Her dead Emperor’s will or the whispers of her own ghosts. Justice for the empire or her own revenge.  
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Title: A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin
Release Date: March 29th 2022
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads
Magic tea!! Also intense cover love. I am 😍 this was a fast preorder decision for me for sure.

“I used to look at my hands with pride. Now all I can think is, “These are the hands that buried my mother.”
For Ning, the only thing worse than losing her mother is knowing that it’s her own fault. She was the one who unknowingly brewed the poison tea that killed her—the poison tea that now threatens to also take her sister, Shu.
When Ning hears of a competition to find the kingdom’s greatest shennong-shi—masters of the ancient and magical art of tea-making—she travels to the imperial city to compete. The winner will receive a favor from the princess, which may be Ning’s only chance to save her sister’s life.
But between the backstabbing competitors, bloody court politics, and a mysterious (and handsome) boy with a shocking secret, Ning might actually be the one in more danger.  
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Title: Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May
Release Date: March 29th 2022
Genre: Adult Historical Fantasy
Goodreads
Witches in a glittering and extravagant 1930s settings that is also queer!!

“In the aftermath of World War I, a naive woman is swept into a glittering world filled with dark magic, romance, and murder in this lush and decadent debut.
On Crow Island, people whisper, real magic lurks just below the surface.
Neither real magic nor faux magic interests Annie Mason. Not after it stole her future. She’s only on the island to settle her late father’s estate and, hopefully, reconnect with her long-absent best friend, Beatrice, who fled their dreary lives for a more glamorous one.
Yet Crow Island is brimming with temptation, and the biggest one may be her enigmatic new neighbor.
Mysterious and alluring, Emmeline Delacroix is a figure shadowed by rumors of witchcraft. And when Annie witnesses a confrontation between Bea and Emmeline at one of the island’s extravagant parties, she is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where the boundaries of wickedness are tested, and the cost of illicit magic might be death. 
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Title: What We Harvest by Ann Fraistat
Release Date: March 22nd 2022
Genre: YA Thriller / Horror
Goodreads
I have a  huge love for environmental horror so this fell on my TBR list instantly.

“For fans of Wilder Girls comes a nightmarish debut guaranteed to keep you up through the night, about an idyllic small town poisoned by its past, and one girl who must fight the strange disease that’s slowly claiming everyone she loves.
Wren owes everything she has to her home, Hollow’s End, a centuries-old, picture perfect American town. Tourists travel miles to marvel at its miracle crops, including the shimmering, iridescent wheat of Wren’s family farm. Until five months ago.

That’s when the quicksilver mercury blight first surfaced, poisoning the farms of Hollow’s End one by one. It began by consuming the crops–thick, silver sludge bleeding from the earth. Next were the animals. Infected livestock and wild creatures alike staggered off into the woods by day—only to return at night, their eyes, fogged white, leering from the trees.

Then, the blight came for the neighbors.

Wren is among the last locals standing. And the blight has finally come for her, too. Now, the only one she can turn to is the last person she wants to call: her ex, Derek. They haven’t spoken in months, but Wren and Derek still have one thing in common—Hollow’s End means everything to them. Only there’s much they don’t know about their hometown and its renowned miracle crops. And they’re about to discover that miracles aren’t free.

Their ancestors have an awful lot to pay for, and Wren and Derek are the only ones left to settle old debts.  

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Title: My  Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham
Release Date: March 29th 2022
Genre: YA Thriller / Horror
Goodreads
Sapphic!! Horror!! I also believe this is a dark academia, so basically written for me.

“Finch Chamberlin is the newest transfer student to the ultra-competitive Ulalume Academy… but she’s also not what she seems. Months before school started, Finch and her parents got into an accident that should have left her dead at the bottom of a river. But something monstrous, and ancient, and terrifying, wouldn’t let her drown. Finch doesn’t know why she woke up after her heart stopped, but since dying she’s felt a constant pull from the school and the surrounding town of Rainwater, like something on the island is calling to her.
Selena St. Clair sees right through Finch, and she knows something is seriously wrong with her. But despite Selena’s suspicion, she feels drawn to Finch and has a sinking feeling that from now on the two will be inexplicably linked to one another.
One night Finch, Selena, and her friends accidentally summon a carnivorous creature of immense power in the depths of the school. It promises to grant every desire the girls have kept locked away in their insecure hearts―beauty, power, adoration―in exchange for a price: human body parts. But as the cost of their wanting becomes more deadly, Finch and Selena must learn to work together to stop the horror they unleashed, before it consumes the entire island. 
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Title: A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft
Release Date: March 8th 2022
Genre: YA Epic Fantasy
Goodreads
It is pitched as “tenderly aching” and I would like soft magic girls and boys making unlikely teams.

“When Margaret Welty spots the legendary hala, the last living mythical creature, she knows the Halfmoon Hunt will soon follow. Whoever is able to kill the hala will earn fame and riches, and unlock an ancient magical secret. If Margaret wins the hunt, it may finally bring her mother home. While Margaret is the best sharpshooter in town, only teams of two can register, and she needs an alchemist.
Weston Winters isn’t an alchemist–yet. Fired from every apprenticeship he’s landed, his last chance hinges on Master Welty taking him in. But when Wes arrives at Welty Manor, he finds only Margaret and her bloodhound Trouble. Margaret begrudgingly allows him to stay, but on one condition: he must join the hunt with her.
Although they make an unlikely team, Wes is in awe of the girl who has endured alone on the outskirts of a town that doesn’t want her, in this creaking house of ghosts and sorrow. And even though Wes disrupts every aspect of her life, Margaret is drawn to him. He, too, knows what it’s like to be an outsider. As the hunt looms closer and tensions rise, Margaret and Wes uncover dark magic that could be the key to winning the hunt – if they survive that long.
In A Far Wilder Magic, Allison Saft has written an achingly tender love story set against a deadly hunt in an atmospheric, rich fantasy world that will sweep you away.  
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Honourable Mentions

 

Title: Discord of Gods #5 by Jenn Lyons
Release Date: April 26th 2022
Genre: Adult Epic Fantasy
Goodreads
MY #1 MOST HIGHLY ANTICIPATED SERIES FINALE FOR THE YEAR. Be right back am sobbing.

The Discord of Gods marks the epic conclusion to Jenn Lyons’s Chorus of Dragon series, closing out the saga that began with The Ruin of Kings, for fans of Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss.
The end times have come.
Relos Var’s final plans to enslave the universe are on the cusp of fruition. He believes there’s only one being in existence that might be able to stop him: the demon Xaltorath.
As these two masterminds circle each other, neither is paying attention to the third player on the board, Kihrin. Unfortunately, keeping himself classified in the “pawn” category means Kihrin must pretend to be everything the prophecies threatened he’d become: the destroyer of all, the sun eater, a mindless, remorseless plague upon the land. It also means finding an excuse to not destroy the people he loves (or any of the remaining Immortals) without arousing suspicion.
Kihrin’s goals are complicated by the fact that not all of his “act” is one. His intentions may be sincere, but he’s still being forced to grapple with the aftereffects of the corrupted magic ritual that twisted both him and the dragons. Worse, he’s now tied to a body that is the literal avatar of a star – a form that is becoming increasingly, catastrophically unstable. All of which means he’s running out of time.
After all, some stars fade – but others explode. 
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Title: Portrait Of A Thief by Grace D. Li
Release Date: April 5th 2022
Genre: Adult Thriller
Goodreads
I just sign up for anything with a heist in it like [SNAP’S FINGERS] this. No hesitation.

“Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell in Portrait of a Thief, a lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums, about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity.
History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now.
Will Chen plans to steal them back.
A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son that has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a shadowy Chinese corporation reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago.
His crew is every heist archetype one can imagine—or at least, the closest he can get. A conman: Irene Chen, Will’s sister and a public policy major at Duke, who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering student who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down.
Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.
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Title: In A Garden Burning Gold by Rory Power
Release Date: April 5th 2022
Genre: Adult Epic Fantasy
Goodreads
Epic fantasy with royal family drama 👀👌🏻 I also suspect this will be queer!

“Twins imbued with incredible magic and near-immortality will do anything to keep their family safe—even if it tears the siblings apart—in the first book of a mythic epic fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls.
Rhea and her twin brother, Lexos, have spent an eternity helping their father rule their small, unstable country, using their control over the seasons, tides, and stars to keep the people in line. For a hundred years, they’ve been each other’s only ally, defending each other and their younger siblings against their father’s increasingly unpredictable anger.
Now, with an independence movement gaining ground and their father’s rule weakening, the twins must take matters into their own hands to keep their family—and their entire world—from crashing down around them. But other nations are jockeying for power, ready to cross and double cross, and if Rhea and Lexos aren’t careful, they’ll end up facing each other across the battlefield.  
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Title: And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin
Release Date: April 12th 2022
Genre: Adult Horror
Goodreads
Horror novella about monsters from tordotcom which I just am, quite frankly, a fan of.

In a world reeling from an unusual plague, monsters lurk in the streets while terrified survivors arm themselves and roam the countryside in packs. Or perhaps something very different is happening. When a disease affects how reality is perceived, it’s hard to be certain of anything…
Spence is one of the “cured” living at the Ironside rehabilitation facility. Haunted by guilt, he refuses to face the changed world until a new inmate challenges him to help her find her old crew. But if he can’t tell the truth from the lies, how will he know if he has earned the redemption he dreams of? How will he know he hasn’t just made things worse?
In the tradition of Mira Grant and Stephen Graham Jones, Malcolm Devlin’s And Then I Woke Up is a creepy, layered, literary story about false narratives and their ability to divide us.
“A scathing portrait of the world we live in and a running commentary on what’s story, what’s truth, and what’s not.”—Stephen Graham Jones 
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Title: An Arrow To The Moon by Emily X.R. Pan
Release Date:  April 12th 2022
Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy
Goodreads
This is Romeo x Juliet meets Chinese Mythology and I really adored the author’s magical realism debut, The Astonishing Colour of After!

Hunter Yee has perfect aim with a bow and arrow, but all else in his life veers wrong. He’s sick of being haunted by his family’s past mistakes. The only things keeping him from running away are his little brother, a supernatural wind, and the bewitching girl at his new high school.
Luna Chang dreads the future. Graduation looms ahead, and her parents’ expectations are stifling. When she begins to break the rules, she finds her life upended by the strange new boy in her class, the arrival of unearthly fireflies, and an ominous crack spreading across the town of Fairbridge.
As Hunter and Luna navigate their families’ enmity and secrets, everything around them begins to fall apart. All they can depend on is their love…but time is running out, and fate will have its way. 
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Title: Nettle And Bone by T. Kingfisher
Release Date: April 26th 2022
Genre: Adult Epic Fantasy
Goodreads
Dark adult fairy tales though on quests!!

“A dark and compelling fantasy about sisterhood, impossible tasks and the price of power, from award-winning author T. Kingfisher
After years of seeing her sisters suffer at the hands of an abusive prince, Marra―the shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter―has finally realized that no one is coming to their rescue. No one, except for Marra herself.
Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince―if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.
On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra’s family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last. 
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Title: Every Word You’ve Never Said by Jordan Greene
Release Date: April 26th 2022
Genre:  YA Contemporary
Goodreads
Soft contemporary with neurodiverse nonverbal queer kids? Yes please. 🥺

“Skylar Gray is adopted, nonverbal, and he feels most comfortable wearing skirts. Life has never been easy, but with a fresh start at a brand-new school, with new parents and in a new state, he just might finally make some friends. Maybe. Honestly it’s hard to focus on anything when gorgeous rocker boy Jacob is around. But it’s hard for Skylar to trust anyone when people have always been quick to ditch him at the first inconvenience; they always seem more than ready to judge him as defective. And the bullies love to confirm it. Skylar has only ever had himself, so why would anything be different this time? Especially for an anxious boy with literally no voice.
Jacob doesn’t give a damn, especially not since he came out over the summer. He expected the hate he got from his father, who mostly acts as if it never happened, but he refuses to let it hold him back. It doesn’t matter, Jacob’s over it. He’s going to paint his nails, dye his hair, and strike a heavy rift on his guitar if he wants to, even if it means being grounded most of senior year. But when the cute nonverbal transfer student, Skylar, wears a skirt to school, prompting a sexist new dress code proposal, Jacob decides it’s time to take a stand, no matter the risk to himself.
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Title: I Am the Ghost In Your House by Maria Romasco-Moore
Release Date: April 19th 2022
Genre: YA Horror / Mystery
Goodreads
Haunted house YA book with queer representation!!

“From the author of Some Kind of Animal comes a wildly unique story about an invisible girl struggling to see herself in a world obsessed with appearances.
Pie is the ghost in your house.
She is not dead, she is invisible.
The way she looks changes depending on what is behind her. A girl of glass. A girl who is a window. If she stands in front of floral wallpaper she is full of roses.
For Pie’s entire life it’s been Pie and her mother. Just the two of them, traveling across America. They have slept in trains, in mattress stores, and on the bare ground. They have probably slept in your house.
But Pie is lonely. And now, at seventeen, her mother’s given her a gift. The choice of the next city they will go to. And Pie knows exactly where she wants to go. Pittsburgh—where she fell in love with a girl who she plans to find once again. And this time she will reveal herself.
Only how can anyone love an invisible girl?
A magnificent story of love, and friendship, and learning to see yourself in a world based on appearances, I Am the Ghost in Your House is a brilliant reflection on the importance of how much more there is to our world than what meets the eye. 
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Honourable Mentions

Let me know if any of these books caught your eye, or which ones you plan to read too!

 

Top 10 Books Of 2021 (AKA The Books That Own Me Now)

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It is that excruciating time of year where I choose only my top 10 favourites!!

Although I’m going to admit, I did not have a good reading year. I had about eighteen 5-star reads…and when that’s out of 200 books? It’s a little sad. And I am a little sad. And I maybe am a little grumpy lately too. (It’s been a rough year and I’ve come out the other side quite ragged.)

But the thing to focus on is that (a) I DID find some books I wholly love so deeply, and (b) I still struggled to choose exactly which are the top ten. I’ll do my end of year recap in a few days though, so you’ll get to see all my new loves. But for now…

1. These Violent Delights by Micah Nemeverever

If I had to choose only ONE favourite of the year — it’s not even hard this time. It’s this book. This book ruined me, and I still think of it and my soul sort of explodes. It’s an adult dark academia of obsession and pain, of depression and co-dependency, of the intimate phenomenon of being known and of the all-consuming rage of seeing and unfair world. It’s not an “I would fix this world if i could”. More an “i would burn this world down”. So YOU KNOW. It is queer teens and Jewish pain, and it has deep autism coding. Add in excruciatingly incredible writing and just the beautiful but horrible ideal of being perceived — and you have ME, in love with this book. There is also murder. Such horrible, horrible boys. I love them so much. (I also don’t think I can fully ever explain WHY I love this book so much, I just do 😭.)

2. Circe by Madeline Miller

I actually was nervous I wouldn’t love this as much as The Song of Achilles, but — oh I did. I so did. It has a very different tone and also story structure. I almost call this Greek Gods cottagecore, with Miller’s signature gorgeous writing. Circe was amazing and I absolutely love her. Her naivety because she’s so good is painful but also beautiful. Also I want her island 😭 I know it was prison. But also an introverts haven. It was just such a gorgeous book, cleverly told and made me love and ache for Circe.

3. The Memory of Souls (#3) by Jenn Lyons

Back with my favourite epic fantasy series (of ever?! dare I say!!) and this was actually the first book I finished in 2021 and the absolute best way to start the year. I think this is my favourite of the series because it was so downright HILARIOUS. Solid plot, epic reveals and twists — and also comedy gold. Kihrin continues to be our favourite dumbass heroic himbo, and I can’t say he did a single thing right in this book, but we love him for it. If you are looking for an epic fantasy series, just drop everything and read this one. (Queer, extremely huge and complex world, inverted chosen one tropes, and beautiful elf-like people with knives, and demons and gods and utterly chaotic.)

4. The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros

This one came out of nowhere and I just !! I fell in love with this wholly. It’s set in the late 1800s, about a closeted queer Jewish immigrant named Alter who has come to Chicago to earn enough money to help bring his family over — and it gives such a brutal, crisp view of the immigrant life. Plus he gets tangled up with the ghost of his murdered best friend … and there’s some Stalking Jack the Ripper vibes plus suave, sassy thieves, and the World Fair. It’s just so so good!!! It busted a hole in my heart, too, which I do appreciate.

5. Silver In the Wood by Emily Tesh

This is a novella, and oh oh it had every foresty, whimsical fairy tale vibe I could ever ask for. I’m truly in love 😍 Ancient forests and slipping time and an old man grown from trees and a young snappily dressed folklorist. Dryads and monsters. I just kept reading it and being like, THIS IS MY THING. Only problem is it is 100 pages and ends too soon. (There is a sequel though, but I loved book one the best.)

6. Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

This book will HAUNT YOU. It was phenomenal?! I’d seen so many people rave about it, but I was in a bit of a slump when i picked it up and I was like, “This will be good but I doubt I’ll fall over.” SIRS. I fell over. Jaw on the floor. It is just so well written and a masterclass in suspense. It’s about two Black students (no romance between them!!) and how something slow and insidious unfurls in their school, until they’re literally being haunted and stalked by an anonymous terror. The best thriller.

7. Into the Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyer

Back to the books that give me immense fairy tale vibes!! This was perfect. It was so gorgeous. The style is so warm and beautiful, slow in a gorgeous way, and it follows the story of Owen who lives on the edges of a wicked wood and how he ends up falling for a murderous tree siren. Monster girls and soft boys are one of my absolute favourite tropes. And just the way this book was so gentle 🥺 and deeply, ruthlessly magical. Adored it. (I listened to it on audio and then had to go buy a copy, okay.)

8. Deeplight by Frances Hardinge

I got told I’d love this book (which is why I bought it, let’s be real) and did I? Absolutely I did 😩👌🏻 It’s a sea-based fantasy (my favourite) with sea gods and monsters (also favourite) and an absolute dumbass con artist kid (again, fave) and a very intuitive and caring commentary on the pain of toxic relationships (hurt my heart and I love that for me). It was just so clever with such beautiful world building, and I just got so so into this. (Also no romances! And Hark is 14, so it’s nice to have a younger-featuring protagonist for once.)

9. We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra

This is exclusively told in letters by two boys assigned to write to each other as part of their English assignment and — okay I just didn’t expect it to hit as hard? But its so beautifully told, and I really love introspective books that get all personal and angsty but in a beautiful way. And watching one character come to terms with their queerness despite abuse, and the other character fighting against a mainstream world was just 😭 I love it. And it hurt. It was so poetic and tender.

10. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Now talking about pain– hahahah. I did not know pain before this. This book made me BAWL (and I don’t even ever shed real tears while reading?!) It broke me 😭 and there is no being the same after this. It’s notoriously infamous for being an extremely hard-hitting book that deals with a torrent of abuse and it’s hard to read at times. It will strangle you with emotions and horror more than once. But I just think it was so well written, so well captured. Disability and queerness and the complexities of friendship groups. Like this book changed me and I’m so glad I read it, even if it was such a hard read. The intimate friendships and love it portrayed just– will go cry into the carpet for a bit, brb.

tell me your favourite reads of 2021? did we share any of the same?

 

 

2021 New Young Adult Book Releases I Need (Badly) Ft. Sept to November

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Hiiii and I am back with more books for your towering TBR piles!!

I know, I know 😭 our wallets and overcrowded bookshelves do not need this, but do our hearts need it? Yes. That’s what’s important here alright. Snatching that fleeting moment of happiness while burying your face into a new book.

This will be my last YA new releases anticipation list for the year!! I will start in on 2022 books soon though so 😌 there will be no true rest. (Okay but the 2022 covers are already looking gorgeous.)

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➢ 2021 YA New Releases (Jan to April)
➢ 2021 YA New Releases (May to August)
➢ Why It’s Perfectly Acceptable To Have An Enormous TBR Pile

Dark & Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain | Goodreads

Ngl this cover made it an instant preorder for me 👀 but also small creepy towns and sinister vibes are my thing, so I’m super excited for this!

La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide. This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World–and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey’s best friend, disappeared six months earlier.
Grey can’t believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychics knows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something – her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late mother, whose secrets continue to call to Grey from beyond the grave.
When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou – a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town’s bloody history – Grey realizes that La Cachette’s past is far more present and dangerous than she’d ever understood. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who she can trust. In a town where secrets lurk just below the surface, and where a murderer is on the loose, nobody can be presumed innocent–and La Cachette’s dark and shallow lies may just rip the town apart.
A teen girl disappears from her small town deep in the bayou, where magic festers beneath the surface of the swamp like water rot, in this chilling debut supernatural thriller for fans of Natasha Preston, Karen McManus, and Rory Power.
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So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow | Goodreads

I have absolutely not read the original Little Women but pfft 😂 let’s not let that stop me. This looks incredible! And I loved this author’s book, A Song Below Water.

North Carolina, 1863. As the American Civil War rages on, the Freedmen’s Colony of Roanoke Island is blossoming, a haven for the recently emancipated. Black people have begun building a community of their own, a refuge from the shadow of the old life. It is where the March family has finally been able to safely put down roots with four young daughters:
Meg, a teacher who longs to find love and start a family of her own.
Jo, a writer whose words are too powerful to be contained.
Beth, a talented seamstress searching for a higher purpose.
Amy, a dancer eager to explore life outside her family’s home.
As the four March sisters come into their own as independent young women, they will face first love, health struggles, heartbreak, and new horizons. But they will face it all together. 
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A Clash of Steal: A Treasure Island Remix by C.B. Lee | Goodreads

This cover though 😍 I believe this is part of the same series as the above book (but from different authors obviously!) And I LOVE retellings so this is so exciting. I always loved Treasure Island (and Disney’s Treasure Planet let’s be real.)

Two intrepid girls hunt for a legendary treasure on the deadly high seas in this YA remix of the classic adventure novel Treasure Island.
1826. The sun is setting on the golden age of piracy, and the legendary Dragon Fleet, the scourge of the South China Sea, is no more. Xiang has grown up with stories about the Dragon Fleet and its ruthless leader, a woman known only as the Dragon Queen, all her life. Xiang desperately wants to set sail and explore—mainly to find her father, a presumed dead crew member of the Dragon Fleet. Her only memento of him is a pendant she always wears, a simple but plain piece of gold jewelry.
But the pendant’s true nature is revealed when a mysterious girl named Anh steals it, only to return it to Xiang in exchange for her help in decoding the tiny map scroll hidden inside. Rumor has it that the legendary Dragon Queen had one last treasure—the plunder of a thousand ports—hidden away on an island shrouded in mist that only can be seen once in a blue moon.
Xiang is convinced this map could lead to the fabled treasure. Captivated with the thrill of adventure, she joins Anh and her motley crew off in pursuit of the island. But the girls soon find that the sea—and especially those who sail it—are far more dangerous than the legends led them to believe.  
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The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes | Goodreads

Yessss I need this one badly after the cliffhanger of book 1! Also this series is just me living my indulgent dream of inheriting a billionaire’s fortune 😪 I am getting tips.

The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions—including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons. 
Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she’s not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, two of the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture—by any means necessary. 
With nonstop action, aspirational jet-setting, Knives Out-like family intrigue, swoonworthy romance, and billions of dollars hanging in the balance, The Hawthorne Legacy will thrill Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans and new readers alike. 
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Things We Couldn’t Say by Jay Coles | Goodreads

I’ve been waiting for a new book from this author since Tyler Johnson Was Here so !! Am keen for this and maaaaybe preordered it 😌

There’s always been a hole in Gio’s life. Not because he’s into both guys and girls. Not because his father has some drinking issues. Not because his friends are always bringing him their drama. No, the hole in Gio’s life takes the shape of his birth mom, who left Gio, his brother, and his father when Gio was nine years old. For eight years, he never heard a word from her . . . and now, just as he’s started to get his life together, she’s back.
It’s hard for Gio to know what to do. Can he forgive her like she wants to be forgiven? Or should he tell her she lost her chance to be in his life? Complicating things further, Gio’s started to hang out with David, a new guy on the basketball team. Are they friends? More than friends? At first, Gio’s not sure . . . especially because he’s not sure what he wants from anyone right now.
There are no easy answers to love — whether it’s family love or friend love or romantic love. In Things We Couldn’t Say, Jay Coles, acclaimed author of Tyler Johnson Was Here, shows us a guy trying to navigate love in all its ambiguity — hoping at the other end he’ll be able to figure out who is and who he should be. 
From one of the brightest and most acclaimed new lights in YA fiction, a fantastic new novel about a bi Black boy finding first love . . . and facing the return of the mother who abandoned his preacher family when he was nine. 
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Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao | Goodreads

I heard this had a love triangle that ends in polyam so 😌👌🏻 finally a triangle that makes sense. Also it sounds really epic!!

The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.​
To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia​. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed. 
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White Smoke by Tiffany D Jackson | Goodreads

All of her books are brilliant and utterly HARROWING and now she’s doing horror?!? Yes please. I’m ready to be ruined. (Monday’s Not Coming haunted me enough as is 😩😭)

Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family from their small California beach town to the embattled Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job with the Sterling Foundation that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty ten-year-old stepsister, Piper.
The renovated picture-perfect home on Maple Street, sitting between dilapidated houses, surrounded by wary neighbors has its . . . secrets. That’s only half the problem: household items vanish, doors open on their own, lights turn off, shadows walk past rooms, voices can be heard in the walls, and there’s a foul smell seeping through the vents only Mari seems to notice. Worse: Piper keeps talking about a friend who wants Mari gone.
But “running from ghosts” is just a metaphor, right?
As the house closes in, Mari learns that the danger isn’t limited to Maple Street. Cedarville has its secrets, too. And secrets always find their way through the cracks.
The Haunting of Hill House meets Get Out in this chilling YA psychological thriller and modern take on the classic haunted house story from New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson!  
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Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber | Goodreads

Jacks is back with his own book!! Although I actually thought it would be narrated by him but I don’t think so 😂 Either way, ready for more lush Stephanie Garber prose after Caraval!

Evangeline Fox was raised in her beloved father’s curiosity shop, where she grew up on legends about immortals, like the tragic Prince of Hearts. She knows his powers are mythic, his kiss is worth dying for, and that bargains with him rarely end well.
But when Evangeline learns that the love of her life is about to marry another, she becomes desperate enough to offer the Prince of Hearts whatever he wants in exchange for his help to stop the wedding. The prince only asks for three kisses. But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’s pledged. And he has plans for Evangeline that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy… 
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Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo | Goodreads

I’m sneaking one adult book onto here (more like a dark academia YA/adult crossover) because I’m absolutely dying with need for this one! It’s like a checklist of everything I adore in books 😭

Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six months later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn’t know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom with bleeding wrists that mutters of revenge.
As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie’s death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie’s nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble, letting in the phantom that hungers for him. 
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Social Queue by Kay Kerr | Goodreads

I had the honour of blurbing this one!! After loving Kay Kerr’s debut (Please Don’t Hug Me) I was super excited for more authentic and relatable autistic and australian teen experiences – and this didn’t disappoint!

Zoe Kelly is starting a new phase of her life. High school was a mess of bullying and autistic masking that left her burnt out and shut down. Now, with an internship at an online media company—the first step on the road to her dream writing career—she is ready to reinvent herself. But she didn’t count on returning to her awkward and all-too-recent high-school experiences for her first writing assignment.
When her piece, about her non-existent dating life, goes viral, eighteen-year-old Zoe is overwhelmed and more than a little surprised by the response. But, with a deadline and a list of romantic contenders from the past to reconnect with for her piece on dating, she is hoping one of her old sparks will turn into a new flame.
Social Queue is a funny and heart-warming autistic story about deciphering the confusing signals of attraction and navigating a path to love.  
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Honourable Mentions!

Aristotle And Dante Dive into The Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz | Goodreads

I’ve been waiting for this forever 🥺 a sequel to Ari & Dante!? The anticipation is so high I JUST–

In Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, two boys in a border town fell in love. Now, they must discover what it means to stay in love and build a relationship in a world that seems to challenge their very existence.
Ari has spent all of high school burying who he really is, staying silent and invisible. He expected his senior year to be the same. But something in him cracked open when he fell in love with Dante, and he can’t go back. Suddenly he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies of all kinds, and making his voice heard. And, always, there is Dante, dreamy, witty Dante, who can get on Ari’s nerves and fill him with desire all at once.
The boys are determined to forge a path for themselves in a world that doesn’t understand them. But when Ari is faced with a shocking loss, he’ll have to fight like never before to create a life that is truthfully, joyfully his own.  
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That Dark Infinity by Kate Pentecost | Goodreads

This COVER 😍 I’m smitten. But also it sounds like an exciting epic fantasy of monsters and curses so I’m here for it.

By night, the Ankou is a legendary, permanently young mercenary. By day, a witch’s curse leaves him no more than bones. Caught in an unending cycle of death and resurrection, the Ankou wants only to find the death that has been prophesied for him, especially once he begins to rot while he’s still alive….
After the kingdom of Kaer-Ise is sacked, Flora, loyal handmaiden to the princess, is assaulted and left for dead. As the sole survivor of the massacre, Flora wants desperately to find the princess she served. When the Ankou agrees to help her find the princess, and to train her in exchange for her help in breaking his curse, she accepts. But how can she kill an immortal? Especially one whom she is slowly growing to understand—and maybe even to love?
Together, they will solve mysteries, battle monsters, break curses, and race not only against time, but against fate itself. 
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Vial of Tears by Cristin Bishara | Goodreads

This sounds super unique?! And the cover truly caught my eye too!!

Two sisters become trapped in the underworld–and in the machinations of deities, shapeshifters, and ghouls–in this lush and dangerous Phoenician mythology-inspired fantasy.
Sixteen-year-old sisters Samira and Rima aren’t exactly living the dream. Instead, they live with their maddeningly unreliable mother in a rundown trailer in Michigan. Dad’s dead, money’s tight, and Mom disappears for days at a time. So when Sam’s grandfather wills her the family valuables–a cache of Lebanese antiquities–she’s desperate enough to try pawning them before Mom can.
But she shouldn’t. Because one is cursed, forbidden, the burial coin of a forgotten god. Disturbing it condemns her and Rima to the Phoenician underworld, a place of wicked cities, burning cedar forests, poisoned feasts of milk and lemons, and an endless, windless ocean.
Nothing is what it seems. No one is who they say. And down here, the night never ends.
To get home–and keep her sister safe–Sam will have to outwit beautiful shapeshifters, pose as a royal bride, sail the darkest sea… and maybe kill the god of death himself. 
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The Keeper of the Night by Kylie Lee Baker | Goodreads

This just sounds extremely badass with soul collecting and death goddesses and a sister/brother duo!

Half British Reaper, half Japanese Shinigami, Ren Scarborough has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries. Expected to obey the harsh hierarchy of the Reapers who despise her, Ren conceals her emotions and avoids her tormentors as best she can.
When her failure to control her Shinigami abilities drives Ren out of London, she flees to Japan to seek the acceptance she’s never gotten from her fellow Reapers. Accompanied by her younger brother, the only being on earth to care for her, Ren enters the Japanese underworld to serve the Goddess of Death… only to learn that here, too, she must prove herself worthy. Determined to earn respect, Ren accepts an impossible task—find and eliminate three dangerous Yokai demons—and learns how far she’ll go to claim her place at Death’s side. 
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Tink And Wendy by Kelly Ann Jacobson | Goodreads

A queer peter pan retelling (with a love triangle?!) is basically always what I want so 😪🙌🏻 I have an eARC of this and am super keen to read it!

What happens when Tinker Bell is in love with both Peter Pan and Wendy? In this sparkling re-imagining of Peter Pan, Peter and Wendy’s granddaughter Hope Darling finds the reclusive Tinker Bell squatting at the Darling mansion in order to care for the graves of her two lost friends after a love triangle gone awry. As Hope wins the fairy’s trust, Tink tells her the truth about Wendy and Peter—and her own role in their ultimate fate. Told in three alternating perspectives—past, present, and excerpts from a book called Neverland: A History written by Tink’s own fairy godmother—this queer adaptation is for anyone who has ever wondered if there might have been more to the story of Tinker Bell and the rest of the Peter Pan legend. 
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The Heartbreak Bakery A.R. Capetta | Goodreads

Just say MAGIC BAKERY and I’m there, and make it queer and it’s just a done deal. Also I really loved A.R. Capetta’s The Brilliant Death too!

Teenage baker Syd sends ripples of heartbreak through Austin’s queer community when a batch of post-being-dumped brownies turns out to be magical—and makes everyone who eats them break up.
“What’s done is done.”
Unless, of course, it was done by my brownies. Then it’s getting undone.
Syd (no pronouns, please) has always dealt with big, hard-to-talk-about things by baking. Being dumped is no different, except now Syd is baking at the Proud Muffin, a queer bakery and community space in Austin. And everyone who eats Syd’s breakup brownies . . . breaks up. Even Vin and Alec, who own the Proud Muffin. And their breakup might take the bakery down with it. Being dumped is one thing; causing ripples of queer heartbreak through the community is another. But the cute bike delivery person, Harley (he or they, check the pronoun pin, it’s probably on the messenger bag), believes Syd about the magic baking. And Harley believes Syd’s magical baking can fix things, too—one recipe at a time.  
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Honourable Mentions!

A Snake Falls To Earth by Darcie Little Badger | Goodreads

As a huge fan of Elatsoe last year, I need more from this author!! I’m not sure if this one also has ace rep but kind of hoping. And the cultural storytelling aspect sounds amazing already 😍

Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories.
Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He’s found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake.
Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries.
And there are some who will kill to keep them apart.
Darcie Little Badger introduced herself to the world with Elatsoe. In A Snake Falls to Earth, she draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family. It is not to be missed. 
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The Reckless Kind by Carly Heath | Goodreads

Queerness, disability rep, historical fiction !!! This has it all 🥺 And I think it has some queer-platonic triangles happening? Will read asap to see 😩👌🏻

A genre-defying debut, this queer historical YA centers a wild and reckless trio who fly in the face of small town tradition—full of compassion, love, and determination to live the lives of their choosing.
It’s Norway 1904, and Asta Hedstrom doesn’t want to marry her odious betrothed, Nils—even though a domestic future is all her mother believes she’s suited for, on account of her single-sided deafness, unconventional appearance, and even stranger notions. Asta would rather spend her life performing in the village theater with her friends and fellow outcasts: her best friend Gunnar Fuglestad and his secret boyfriend, wealthy Erlend Fournier.
But the situation takes a dire turn when Nils lashes out in jealousy—gravely injuring Gunnar. Shunning marriage for good, Asta moves with Gunnar and Erlend to their secluded cabin above town. With few ties left with their families, they have one shot at gaining enough kroner to secure their way of life: win the village’s annual horse race. 
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You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus | Goodreads

It’s funny because the first time I read a McManus thriller I didn’t love it…and then every single one after that I’ve adored 😂 So I need this!! I really love her characters and the mysteries in the plots.

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day.
Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out–he’s been working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up . . . again.
So when Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They’ll ditch and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say . . .
. . . until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school–and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse.
It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common. They all have a connection to the dead kid. And they’re all hiding something.
Now they’re all wondering–could it be that their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all?
From the author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand-new pulse-pounding thriller. It’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with murder when three old friends relive an epic ditch day, and it goes horribly–and fatally–wrong.
 
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Spin Me Right Around by David Valdes | Goodreads

This sounds really fun and twisty! A queer Back to the Future!

From lauded writer David Valdes, a sharp and funny YA novel that’s Back to the Future with a twist, as a gay teen travels back to his parents’ era to save a closeted classmate’s life.
All Luis Gonzalez wants is to go to prom with his boyfriend, something his “progressive” school still doesn’t allow. Not after what happened with Chaz Wilson. But that was ages ago, when Luis’s parents were in high school; it would never happen today, right? He’s determined to find a way to give his LGBTQ friends the respect they deserve (while also not risking his chance to be prom king, just saying…).
When a hit on the head knocks him back in time to 1985 and he meets the doomed young Chaz himself, Luis concocts a new plan-he’s going to give this guy his first real kiss. Though it turns out a conservative school in the ’80s isn’t the safest place to be a gay kid. Especially with homophobes running the campus, including Gordo (aka Luis’s estranged father). Luis is in over his head, trying not to make things worse-and hoping he makes it back to present day at all.
In a story that’s fresh, intersectional, and wickedly funny, David Valdes introduces a big-mouthed, big-hearted queer character that readers won’t soon forget.  
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Starling by Isabel Strychacz | Goodreads

This is promising lush prose which is my THING. I absolutely can’t wait and may have this preordered. 😍

Strange things have always happened in the small town of Darling…Yet Delta Wilding and her sister Bee are familiar with the peculiar. Raised by an eccentric father always on the hunt for the spectacular, they’re used to following weather patterns that twirl onto strange paths, a car that refuses to play any artist but one, and living in a sentient house with whims of its own. But when a mysterious boy falls from the stars into the woods behind the Wilding sisters’ farmhouse, nothing can prepare them for the extraordinary turn their lives are about to take.
Extraordinary, and dangerous.
Starling Rust is not from this world and his presence in the Wilding home brings attention. As the terrified locals, Delta’s ex-boyfriend, and the unscrupulous mayor descend onto the Wilding’s home, both Delta and her sister go to incredible lengths to protect their mystical visitor–especially as Delta’s growing feelings for Starling could prove the greatest risk of all.
Filled with atmospheric prose and lush and vivid descriptions, Starling has the spectacular waiting with every flip of the page.
Edward Scissorhands meets When the Moon Was Ours in this enchanting, lushly romantic novel about two teen sisters who fight to protect the mysterious stranger who literally fell from the stars and into their backyard. 
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Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen | Goodreads

Am very excited for mermaids meets West African Mythology here! And the cover is so pretty!!

A way to survive.
A way to serve.
A way to save.
Simi prayed to the gods, once. Now she serves them as Mami Wata–a mermaid–collecting the souls of those who die at sea and blessing their journeys back home.
But when a living boy is thrown overboard, Simi does the unthinkable–she saves his life, going against an ancient decree. And punishment awaits those who dare to defy it.
To protect the other Mami Wata, Simi must journey to the Supreme Creator to make amends. But something is amiss. There’s the boy she rescued, who knows more than he should. And something is shadowing Simi, something that would rather see her fail. . . .
Danger lurks at every turn, and as Simi draws closer, she must brave vengeful gods, treacherous lands, and legendary creatures. Because if she doesn’t, then she risks not only the fate of all Mami Wata, but also the world as she knows it.
An unforgettable fantasy debut inspired by West African mythology, this is Children of Blood and Bone meets The Little Mermaid, in which a mermaid takes on the gods themselves.
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Honourable Mentions!

2021 New Young Adult Releases For Your Towering TBR Pile!! [Ft May to August]

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It’s that time again, when I do not help your TBR piles!!

In fact! I am the opposite of help and probably will make you add 394092 new books to your pile 😪 I’d say sorry but I’m not. What I WILL say is that I need to fall down a goldmine and accidentally inherit it all to be able to afford these. (Why have book prices in Australia exploded so steeply 😭 it hurts.)

So below I’ve picked out a ton of new Young Adult book releases coming out in May, June, July and August, 2021! All are linked to Goodreads so enjoy 🤗 You can also catch my first releases post from early this year (the January to April edition).

Note: I have included a few adult titles in here, just because they caught my eye and I am here to break the rules of my own post.

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➢ 2020 New YA Releases January, March, April
➢ 2020 New YA Releases May, June, July
➢ 2020 New YA Releases August, Sept, Oct, Nov
➢ Why It’s Perfectly Acceptable To Have An Enormous TBR Pile

The House of Always (#4) by Jenn Lyons | Goodreads

This is one of my top anticipated books of the YEAR okay  😂🙌🏻 I am so hyped! Chorus of Dragons is my new favourite series and this is book 4. I will never stop recommending it!!

What if you were imprisoned for all eternity?
In the aftermath of the Ritual of Night, everything has changed.
The Eight Immortals have catastrophically failed to stop Kihrin’s enemies, who are moving forward with their plans to free Vol Karoth, the King of Demons. Kihrin has his own ideas about how to fight back, but even if he’s willing to sacrifice everything for victory, the cost may prove too high for his allies.
Now they face a choice: can they save the world while saving Kihrin, too? Or will they be forced to watch as he becomes the very evil they have all sworn to destroy. 
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Off The Record by Cameron Garrett | Goodreads

I really loved the author’s debut and this sounds so fascinating too! A teen journalist, the #MeToo movement, and a story that’s dangerous to unravel.

The behind-the-scenes access of Almost Famous meets the searing revelations of #metoo in this story of a teen journalist who uncovers the scandal of the decade.
Ever since seventeen-year-old Josie Wright can remember, writing has been her identity, the thing that grounds her when everything else is a garbage fire. So when she wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine, she’s equal parts excited and scared, but also ready. She’s got this.
Soon Josie is jetting off on a multi-city tour, rubbing elbows with sparkly celebrities, frenetic handlers, stone-faced producers, and eccentric stylists. She even finds herself catching feelings for the subject of her profile, dazzling young newcomer Marius Canet. Josie’s world is expanding so rapidly, she doesn’t know whether she’s flying or falling. But when a young actress lets her in on a terrible secret, the answer is clear: she’s in over her head.
One woman’s account leads to another and another. Josie wants to expose the man responsible, but she’s reluctant to speak up, unsure if this is her story to tell. What if she lets down the women who have entrusted her with their stories? What if this ends her writing career before it even begins? There are so many reasons not to go ahead, but if Josie doesn’t step up, who will?
 
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Burn It All Down by Nicolas DiDomizio | Goodreads

So this just sounds thoroughly chaotic and I am intrigued. 😂 An Italian queer teen boy and his mum end up ditching their problematic respective boyfriends and go on a petty crime spree? Am in 😌

Eighteen-year-old aspiring comic Joey Rossi just found out his boyfriend has been cheating on him for the past ten months. But what did he expect? Joey was born with an addiction to toxic jerks—something he inherited from his lovably messy, wisecracking, Italian-American spitfire of a mom (and best friend): 34-year-old Gia Rossi.
When Gia’s latest non-relationship goes up in flames only a day later, the pair’s Bayonne, New Jersey apartment can barely contain their rage. In a misguided attempt at revenge, Joey and Gia inadvertently commit a series of crimes and flee the state, running to the only good man either of them has ever known—Gia’s ex, Marco. As they hide out from the law at Marco’s secluded lake house, Joey and Gia must confront all the bad habits and mistakes they’ve made that have led them to this moment—and find a way to take responsibility for what they’ve done. 
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Mister Impossible (#2) by Maggie Stiefvater | Goodreads

You know am always dying for the next book about Ronan Lynch 😩🙌🏻The blurb gives absolutely NO information 😂 but I’m expecting more typical Stiefvater chaos.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Raven Boys, a mesmerizing story of dreams and desires, death and destiny.
The stakes have never been higher as it seems like either the end of the world or the end of dreamers approaches.
Do the dreamers need the ley lines to save the world . . . or will their actions end up dooming the world? As Ronan, Hennessy, and Bryde try to make dreamers more powerful, the Moderators are closing in, sure that this power will bring about disaster. In the remarkable second book of The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater pushes her characters to their limits – and shows what happens to them and others when they start to break.  
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Black Water Sister by Zen Cho | Goodreads

The blurb of this one has me enthralled! Reluctant mediums, Malaysian-set fantasy, estranged grandmother ghosts!! I think this is also adult and I need it.

A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this compelling Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy.
Jessamyn Teoh is closeted, broke and moving back to Malaysia, a country she left when she was a toddler. So when Jess starts hearing voices, she chalks it up to stress. But there’s only one voice in her head, and it claims to be the ghost of her estranged grandmother, Ah Ma. In life Ah Ma was a spirit medium, the avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she’s determined to settle a score against a gang boss who has offended the god–and she’s decided Jess is going to help her do it.
Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts, and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business. As Jess fights for retribution for Ah Ma, she’ll also need to regain control of her body and destiny. If she fails, the Black Water Sister may finish her off for good. 
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All Kinds of Other by James Sie | Goodreads

I only recently heard about this one and it sounds like it’ll pack a punch to the feels 🥺 Coming-of-age with trans kids and new schools. The cover is also super gorgeous. 

In this tender, nuanced coming-of-age love story, two boys—one who is cis and one who is trans—have been guarding their hearts to protect themselves, until their feelings for each other give them a reason to stand up to their fears.
Two boys are starting at a new school.
Jules is just figuring out what it means to be gay and hasn’t totally decided whether he wants to be out at his new school. His parents and friends have all kinds of opinions, but for his part, Jules just wants to make the basketball team and keep his head down.
Jack is trying to start over after a best friend break-up. He followed his actor father clear across the country to LA, but he’s also totally ready to leave his past behind. Maybe this new school where no one knows him is exactly what he needs.
When the two boys meet, the sparks are undeniable. But then a video surfaces linking Jack to a pair of popular transgender vloggers, and the revelations about Jack’s past thrust both Jack and Jules into the spotlight they’ve been trying to avoid. Suddenly both boys have a choice to make—between lying low where it’s easier or following their hearts. 
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In The Ravenous Dark by A.M. Strickland | Goodreads

When the pitch is, “A pansexual bloodmage reluctantly teams up with an undead spirit to start a rebellion among the living and the dead” yeah I know I need it 😌 Also from an ace author!

In Thanopolis, those gifted with magic are assigned undead spirits to guard them—and control them. Ever since Rovan’s father died trying to keep her from this fate, she’s hidden her magic. But when she accidentally reveals her powers, she’s bound to a spirit and thrust into a world of palace intrigue and deception.
Desperate to escape, Rovan finds herself falling for two people she can’t fully trust: Lydea, a beguiling, rebellious princess; and Ivrilos, the handsome spirit with the ability to control Rovan, body and soul.
Together, they uncover a secret that will destroy Thanopolis. To save them all, Rovan will have to start a rebellion in both the mortal world and the underworld, and find a way to trust the princess and spirit battling for her heart—if she doesn’t betray them first. 
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The Other Side of Perfect by Mariko Turk | Goodreads

I have an ARC of this one so I’m really excited to dive in! It’s about ballet dancers and disability and also deals with racism in the dance industry.

Alina Keeler was destined to dance, but one terrifying fall shatters her leg–and her dreams of a professional ballet career along with it.
After a summer healing (translation: eating vast amounts of Cool Ranch Doritos and binging ballet videos on YouTube), she is forced to trade her pre-professional dance classes for normal high school, where she reluctantly joins the school musical. However, rehearsals offer more than she expected–namely Jude, her annoyingly attractive cast mate she just might be falling for.
But to move forward, Alina must make peace with her past and face the racism she had grown to accept in the dance industry. She wonders what it means to yearn for ballet–something so beautiful, yet so broken. And as broken as she feels, can she ever open her heart to someone else?
Touching, romantic, and peppered with humor, this debut novel explores the tenuousness of perfectionism, the possibilities of change, and the importance of raising your voice.
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Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar | Goodreads

Another one where I loved the author’s debut  (The Henna Wars!) so I’m excited for their next book. 🥰Fake dating is SUCH a fun trope too. I have this one preordered 👀👌🏻

Everyone likes Humaira “Hani” Khan—she’s easy going and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship…with a girl her friends absolutely hate—Ishita “Ishu” Dey. Ishu is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani, if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl.
Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other. But relationships are complicated, and some people will do anything to stop two Bengali girls from achieving happily ever after.  
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Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean | Goodreads

This is the “girl discovers she’s secretly a princess” like Princess Diaries! But Japanese 👀🙌🏻I am so, so intrigued. I also enjoyed the author’s epic fantasy, Empress of All Seasons, a few years ago!

Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in—it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi—or Izzy, because “It’s easier this way”—and her mom against the world. But then Izzy discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity…and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess.
In a whirlwind, Izzy travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the country she always dreamed of. But being a princess isn’t all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight.
Izzy soon finds herself caught between worlds, and between versions of herself—back home, she was never “American” enough, and in Japan, she must prove she’s “Japanese” enough. Will Izumi crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairytale, happily ever after?  
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Honourable Mentions!

The Coming Storm by Regina M. Hansen | Goodreads

It had me at “music, myth, and horror” to be honest 👀👌🏻I’m a huge fan of music stories (my debut is about a pianist!!) so this was a preorder for me too 😂

There’s a certain wild magic in the salt air and the thrum of the sea. Beet MacNeill has known this all her life. It added spice to her childhood adventures with her older cousin, Gerry, the two of them thick as thieves as they explored their Prince Edward Island home. So when Gerry comes up the path one early spring morning, Beet thinks nothing of it at first. But he is soaking wet and silent, and he plays a haunting tune on his fiddle that chills Beet to the bone. Something is very, very wrong.
Things only get worse when Marina Shaw saunters into town and takes an unsettling interest in Gerry’s new baby. Local lore is filled with tales of a vicious shape-shifting sea creature and the cold, beautiful woman who controls him—a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Marina. Beet is determined to find out what happened to her beloved cousin, and to prevent the same fate from befalling the handsome new boy in town who is winning her heart, whether she wants him to or not. Yet the sea always exacts a price… 
Music, myth, and horror blend in this romantic, atmospheric fantasy debut about a teen girl who must fight a powerful evil that’s invaded her Prince Edward Island home—perfect for fans of An Enchantment of Ravens. 
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The Ghosts We Keep by Mason Deaver | Goodreads

The author’s debut (I Wish You All The Best) was one of my absolute favourites! So of course I am stoked about for their newest book 😭💛 This one seems to be dealing with grief, so ready for these tough themes.

When Liam Cooper’s older brother Ethan is killed in a hit-and-run, Liam has to not only learn to face the world without one of the people he loved the most, but also face the fading relationship with his two best friends.
Feeling more alone and isolated than ever, Liam finds themself sharing time with Marcus, Ethan’s best friend, and through Marcus, Liam finds the one person that seems to know exactly what they’re going through, for the better, and the worse.
This book is about grief. But it’s also about why we live. Why we have to keep moving on, and why we should.
Perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli, this book will rip your heart out before showing you how to heal from tragedy and celebrate life in the process. 
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The Marvelous by Claire Kahn | Goodreads

Okay this one sounds SO FUN! Like a diverse, queer Westing Game! It’s pitched as “six teens locked together in a mansion, contending for a life-changing cash prize in a competition run by a reclusive heiress” and I want it 😂

Everyone thinks they know Jewel Van Hanen. Heiress turned actress turned social media darling who created the massively popular video-sharing app, Golden Rule.
After mysteriously disappearing for a year, Jewel makes her dramatic return with an announcement: she has chosen a few lucky Golden Rule users to spend an unforgettable weekend at her private estate. But once they arrive, Jewel ingeniously flips the script: the guests are now players in an elaborate estate-wide game. And she’s tailored every challenge and obstacle to test whether they have what it takes to win–at any cost.
Told from the perspective of three dazzling players–Nicole: the new queen of Golden Rule; Luna: Jewel’s biggest fan; and Stella: a brilliant outsider–this novel will charm its way into your heart and keep you guessing how it all ends because money isn’t the only thing at stake. 
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Sisters of the Snake by Sarena & Sasha Nanua | Goodreads

This sounds like an Indian genderbent Prince & The Pauper style!! And I quite am here for it! Also the cover is so golden and lovely. Also the authors are sisters!

A lost princess. A dark puppet master. And a race against time—before all is lost.
Princess Rani longs for a chance to escape her gilded cage and prove herself. Ria is a street urchin, stealing just to keep herself alive.
When these two lives collide, everything turns on its head: because Ria and Rani, orphan and royal, are unmistakably identical.
A deal is struck to switch places—but danger lurks in both worlds, and to save their home, thief and princess must work together. Or watch it all fall into ruin.
Deadly magic, hidden temples, and dark prophecies: Sisters of the Snake is an action-packed, immersive fantasy that will thrill fans of The Crown’s Game and The Tiger at Midnight. 
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Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé | Goodreads

Dark academia from a POC author!! I am very much needing all dark academia books please and thank you.

An incendiary and utterly compelling thriller with a shocking twist that delves deep into the heart of institutionalized racism, from an exceptional new YA voice. Welcome to Niveus Private Academy, where money paves the hallways, and the students are never less than perfect. Until now. Because anonymous texter, Aces, is bringing two students’ dark secrets to light. Talented musician Devon buries himself in rehearsals, but he can’t escape the spotlight when his private photos go public. Head girl Chiamaka isn’t afraid to get what she wants, but soon everyone will know the price she has paid for power. Someone is out to get them both. Someone who holds all the aces. And they’re planning much more than a high-school game…  
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This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron | Goodreads

This is from the author of Cinderella Is Dead!! Which I loved 🤗and this is about gardens and poisonous plants and that aesthetic is also what I love. So HERE I am.

Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.
When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri’s unique family lineage.
When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.
From the bestselling author of Cinderella Is Dead comes another inspiring and deeply compelling story about a young woman with the power to conquer the dark forces descending around her. 
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The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon | Goodreads

Faeries and witches and trans main characters!!! The cover isn’t my favourite style but I do love the diversity there?! So I’m really keen for this one.

Wyatt would give anything to forget where he came from—but a kingdom demands its king.
In Asalin, fae rule and witches like Wyatt Croft…don’t. Wyatt’s betrothal to his best friend, fae prince Emyr North, was supposed to change that. But when Wyatt lost control of his magic one devastating night, he fled to the human world.
Now a coldly distant Emyr has hunted him down. Despite transgender Wyatt’s newfound identity and troubling past, Emyr has no intention of dissolving their engagement. In fact, he claims they must marry now or risk losing the throne. Jaded, Wyatt strikes a deal with the enemy, hoping to escape Asalin forever. But as he gets to know Emyr, Wyatt realizes the boy he once loved may still exist. And as the witches face worsening conditions, he must decide once and for all what’s more important—his people or his freedom.  
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The Sea Is Salt and So Am I by Cassandra Hartt| Goodreads

I so so love sea aesthetics so this one caught my eye immediately! Also promises queer and mental health rep!

West Finch is one hurricane away from falling into the sea.
Yet sixteen-year-old Harlow Prout is determined to save her small Maine hometown. If only she could stop getting in her own way and find someone, anyone, willing to help. But her best friend Ellis MacQueen “fixes” problems by running away from them―including his broken relationship with his twin brother, Tommy. And Tommy’s depression has hit a new low, so he’s not up for fixing anything.
In the wake of the town’s latest devastating storm, Tommy goes out for a swim that he doesn’t intend to survive. It’s his unexpected return that sets into motion a sea change between these three teens. One that tests old loyalties, sparks new romance, and uncovers painful secrets. And nothing stays secret in West Finch for long. 
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Honourable Mentions!

 

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim | Goodreads

Okay this sounds amazing about a princess with powers who’s brothers turn into cranes! I was always obsessed with the fairytale of the seven swans, so this seems similar and I can’t wait 🥺👌🏻

Shiori, the only princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted, but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother.
Raikama has dark magic of her own, and she banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes, and warning Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.
Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and, on her journey, uncovers a conspiracy to overtake the throne—a conspiracy more twisted and deceitful, more cunning and complex, than even Raikama’s betrayal. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. And she must embrace the magic she’s been taught all her life to contain—no matter what it costs her.  
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The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters | Goodreads

Another case of “I loved the author’s debut!!” I just finished Ghost Wood Song and it was fantastic, so yes please for more contemporary magic with a sinister hint in the background.

Natasha’s sister is missing.
Her car was found abandoned on the edge of a local nature preserve known as the Bend, but as the case goes cold, Natasha’s loss turns to burning anger.
She’ll do anything to find answers.
Della’s family has channeled magic from the Bend for generations, providing spells for the desperate. But when Natasha appears on her doorstep, Della knows it will take more than simple potions to help her.
But Della has her own secrets to hide.
Because Della thinks she knows the beast who’s responsible for the disappearance — her own mother, who was turned into a terrible monster by magic gone wrong.
Natasha is angry. Della has little to lose.
They are each other’s only hope.  
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The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass | Goodreads

Private school kids mixing with horror and ghosts? Yesssss. I’ve been looking for more horror lately so this has come at the perfect time!

Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, Jake can see the dead. In fact he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact often with people. But then Jake meets Sawyer. A troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, he has plans for his afterlife–plans that include Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood. High school soon becomes a survival game–one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.  
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XOXO by Axie Oh | Goodreads

This features a cellist!! And as a former-cellist myself, I know I need it 😭💛Also it has a girl falling in love with a K-pop star who is forbidden to date!

Cello prodigy Jenny has one goal: to get into a prestigious music conservatory. When she meets mysterious, handsome Jaewoo in her uncle’s Los Angeles karaoke bar, it’s clear he’s the kind of boy who would uproot her careful plans. But in a moment of spontaneity, she allows him to pull her out of her comfort zone for one unforgettable night of adventure…before he disappears without a word.
Three months later, when Jenny and her mother arrive in South Korea to take care of her ailing grandmother, she’s shocked to discover that Jaewoo is a student at the same elite arts academy where she’s enrolled for the semester. And he’s not just any student. He’s a member of one of the biggest K-pop bands in the world—and he’s strictly forbidden from dating.
When a relationship means throwing Jenny’s life off the path she’s spent years mapping out, she’ll have to decide once and for all just how much she’s willing to risk for love.  
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What We Devour by Linsey Miller | Goodreads

A girl with gods inside her? 👀👌🏻Sounds dark and terrific and I would like. The pitch is: “a dark and intricate story of a girl who must tether herself to a violent ruler to save her crumbling world.”

Lorena Adler has a secret—she holds the power of the banished gods, the Noble and the Vile, inside her. She has spent her entire life hiding from the world and her past. She’s content to spend her days as an undertaker in a small town, marry her best friend, Julian, and live an unfulfilling life so long as no one uncovers her true nature.But when the notoriously bloodthirsty and equally Vile crown prince comes to arrest Julian’s father, he immediately recognizes Lorena for what she is. So she makes a deal—a fair trial for her betrothed’s father in exchange for her service to the crown.The prince is desperate for her help. He’s spent years trying to repair the weakening Door that holds back the Vile…and he’s losing the battle. As Lorena learns more about the Door and the horrifying price it takes to keep it closed, she’ll have to embrace both parts of herself to survive. 
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Honourable Mentions!

Redemptor (#2) by Jordan Ifueko | Goodreads

This is the sequel to Raybearer and I absolutely loved it last year! I listened to an audiobook so I probably will be grabbing the audio for this one too!

For the first time, an Empress Redemptor sits on Aritsar’s throne. To appease the sinister spirits of the dead, Tarisai must now anoint a council of her own, coming into her full power as a Raybearer. She must then descend into the Underworld, a sacrifice to end all future atrocities.
Tarisai is determined to survive. Or at least, that’s what she tells her increasingly distant circle of friends. Months into her shaky reign as empress, child spirits haunt her, demanding that she pay for past sins of the empire.
With the lives of her loved ones on the line, assassination attempts from unknown quarters, and a handsome new stranger she can’t quite trust . . . Tarisai fears the pressure may consume her. But in this finale to the Raybearer duology, Tarisai must learn whether to die for justice . . . or to live for it. 
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How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao | Goodreads

Dark academia and murder!!! One of the best ways to get me to want a book!! I’ve anticipated this one for a while and heard it’s super good.

Nancy Luo is shocked when her former best friend, Jamie Ruan, top ranked junior at Sinclair Prep, goes missing, and then is found dead. Nancy is even more shocked when word starts to spread that she and her friends–Krystal, Akil, and Alexander–are the prime suspects, thanks to “The Proctor,” someone anonymously incriminating them via the school’s social media app.
They all used to be Jamie’s closest friends, and she knew each of their deepest, darkest secrets. Now, somehow The Proctor knows them, too. The four must uncover the true killer before The Proctor exposes more than they can bear and costs them more than they can afford, like Nancy’s full scholarship. Soon, Nancy suspects that her friends may be keeping secrets from her, too. 
In a YA thriller that is Crazy Rich Asians meets One of Us is Lying, students at an elite prep school are forced to confront their secrets when their ex-best friend turns up dead. 
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The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad | Goodreads

The blurb sounds really  heartbreaking and whimsical 🥺and I am very much here for this gorgeous cover. It sounds like a story of sisterhood and survival.

Meet the Wild Ones: girls who have been hurt, abandoned, and betrayed all their lives. It all began with Paheli, who was once betrayed by her mother and sold to a man in exchange for a favor. When Paheli escapes, she runs headlong into a boy with stars in his eyes. This boy, as battered as she is, tosses Paheli a box of stars before disappearing.
With the stars, Paheli gains access to the Between, a place of pure magic and mystery. Now, Paheli collects girls like herself and these Wild Ones use their magic to travel the world, helping the hopeless and saving others from the fates they suffered.
Then Paheli and the Wild Ones learn that the boy who gave them the stars, Taraana, is in danger. He’s on the run from powerful forces within the world of magic. But if Taraana is no longer safe and free, neither are the Wild Ones. And that…is a fate the Wild Ones refuse to accept. Ever again.
From William C. Morris Finalist Nafiza Azad comes a thrilling, feminist fantasy about a group of teenage girls endowed with special powers who must band together to save the life of the boy whose magic saved them all. 
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Phantom Heart by Kelly Creagh | Goodreads

Okay this sounds quite fun 😂I really love Phantom of the Opera and this seems like a highschool drama/haunted house twist!

Seventeen-year-old Stephanie Armand doesn’t believe in ghosts or spirits. Despite her six-year-old sister, Charlie, insisting a masked figure is hiding in her closet, and the rumors at school, Stephanie isn’t convinced her father’s latest renovation project–a crumbling Victorian mansion–houses the soul of a monster.
So when the very charming (and paranormal obsessed) Lucas Cheney takes an interest in both Stephanie and her notorious home, the supernatural and romantic activity escalates to an all-time high. And that doesn’t even take into account the dashing, British-accented eighteen-year-old boy, Erik, who’s taken up residence in Stephanie’s nightly dreams. A boy who may have something to do with the man in the mask, and the strange occurrences taking place at Moldavia.
A steamy YA romance with Twilight vibes, inspired by Gaston Leroux’s classic The Phantom of the Opera. 
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Vampire Hearts And Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston | Goodreads

It’s pitched as “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown meets They Both Die at the End” and that’s all I need to know?! Like YES. It seems to be magical realism meets heartstabbing contemporary too!

Victoria and her dad have shared a love of the undead since the first vampire revealed his existence on live TV. Public fear soon drove the vampires back into hiding, yet Victoria and her father still dream about finding a vampire together. But when her dad is diagnosed with terminal cancer, it’s clear that’s not going to happen. Instead, Victoria vows to find a vampire herself—so that she can become one and then save her father.
Armed with research, speculations, and desperation—and helped by her estranged best friend, Henry—Victoria travels to New Orleans in search of a miracle. There she meets Nicholas, a mysterious young man who might give her what she desires. But first, he needs Victoria to prove she loves life enough to live forever.
She agrees to complete a series of challenges, from scarfing sugar-drenched beignets to singing with a jazz band, all to show she has what it takes to be immortal. But truly living while her father is dying feels like a betrayal. Victoria must figure out how to experience joy and grief at once, trusting all the while that Nicholas will hold up his end of the bargain…because the alternative is too impossible to imagine. 
In this heart-wrenching debut YA novel that’s The Coldest Girl in Coldtown meets They Both Die at the End, a teen girl takes a trip to New Orleans with her estranged best friend to find a vampire to save her dying father. 
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The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino | Goodreads

It’s about a cellist AND books?! 🥺💛So basically me. And also there is a book demon and I do admit that is exactly what I need to read about.

Tess Matheson only wants three things: time to practice her cello, for her sister to be happy, and for everyone else to leave her alone.
Instead, Tess finds herself working all summer at her boarding school library, shelving books and dealing with the intolerable patrons. The worst of them is Eliot Birch: snide, privileged, and constantly requesting forbidden grimoires. After a bargain with Eliot leads to the discovery of an ancient book in the library’s grimoire collection, the pair accidentally unleash a book-bound demon.
The demon will stop at nothing to stay free, manipulating ink to threaten those Tess loves and dismantling Eliot’s strange magic. Tess is plagued by terrible dreams of the devil and haunting memories of a boy who wears Eliot’s face. All she knows is to stay free, the demon needs her… and he’ll have her, dead or alive.  
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A Snake Falls To Earth by Darcie Little Badger | Goodreads

Elatsoe was another standalone I absolutely adored last year, so I’m excited to see what the author does for her sophomore book! This has #ownvoices indigenous American rep.

Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories.
Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He’s found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake.
Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries.
And there are some who will kill to keep them apart.
Darcie Little Badger introduced herself to the world with Elatsoe. In A Snake Falls to Earth, she draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family. It is not to be missed. 
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Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden | Goodreads

Queer ballet story from an Australian author! I am super keen to try this one and hope it has good disability rep 👀

Luca Mason has been preparing to audition for the Australian Ballet School for more than a decade when a missed step on a flight of stairs lands him in hospital. But it’s not all bad—as Luca settles into a life of doctor’s appointments, unwieldy crutches, and absolutely no ballet (and no, he does not want to talk about it) he strikes up an unlikely friendship with the perfect-in-every-way rowing star of his new school, Jordan Tanaka-Jones. 
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Honourable Mentions!

 

 

2020 New YA Releases Because You Need More Books!! [Ft. August – November Books]

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It’s new YA book release update time!

Sometimes I think about why I spend hours writing these types of posts, and I come to the conclusion that it’s split between (a) I love writing lists of books and admiring the covers and pretending I could read them all, and (b) if I don’t do this I have no clue what’s coming out and I’ll live out life oblivious and confused 😌👌🏻 So I write new release list posts! You are welcome!

I’ll be listing books I’m excited for that are releasing from August, September, October, and November, 2020 😍and then I’ll likely be petting my laptop screen and angstily wishing I could read them NOW. Because I obviously have nothing else to read.

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➢ 2020 New YA Releases January, March, April
➢ 2020 New YA Releases May, June, July
➢ Why It’s Perfectly Acceptable To Have An Enormous TBR Pile

Also hello I am debuting my new macaron border 😌😙 it is so beautiful

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed | Goodreads

I have not heard much about this one apart from it being very very good!! And also hard hitting. It’s set against the backdrop of the 1992 Rodney King Riots so I am super intrigued for this one 👀

Los Angeles, 1992
Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year and they’re spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer.
Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids.
As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. Even as her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. Even as the model black family façade her wealthy and prominent parents have built starts to crumble. Even as her best friends help spread a rumor that could completely derail the future of her classmate and fellow black kid, LaShawn Johnson.
With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them? 
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Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko | Goodreads

I am on the cusp of finishing an early copy of an audiobook and afjdklsad I LOVE THIS ONE. It has all the feels of an adult epic fantasy (such deep, gorgeous world building) and plenty of sharp characters and clever plot twists. 😙 This is what I want when I ask for a good fantasy!

Nothing is more important than loyalty.
But what if you’ve sworn to protect the one you were born to destroy?
Tarisai has always longed for the warmth of a family. She was raised in isolation by a mysterious, often absent mother known only as The Lady. The Lady sends her to the capital of the global empire of Aritsar to compete with other children to be chosen as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. If she’s picked, she’ll be joined with the other Council members through the Ray, a bond deeper than blood. That closeness is irresistible to Tarisai, who has always wanted to belong somewhere. But The Lady has other ideas, including a magical wish that Tarisai is compelled to obey: Kill the Crown Prince once she gains his trust. Tarisai won’t stand by and become someone’s pawn—but is she strong enough to choose a different path for herself? With extraordinary world-building and breathtaking prose, Raybearer is the story of loyalty, fate, and the lengths we’re willing to go for the ones we love.  
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Prelude for Lost Souls by Helene Dunbar | Goodreads

I always love al of Helene’s books so I am just EXCITED for this 😍 Plus it has music which is something I crave in books and it’s a bit of fantasy woven with queerness. Waiting anxiously for my preorder tbh.

Seventeen-year-old Dec Hampton knows there are no coincidences in St. Hilaire, New York, the spiritualist community he’s longing to leave. So when the train of Annie Krylova, the piano prodigy he’s captivated by, breaks down outside of town, he’s forced to take her sudden entry into his life seriously… just like the unexpected reappearance of Tristan, the childhood friend he’d assumed – and hoped – was imaginary.
Despite everything Dec has learned about Annie on the internet, he’s unaware that she has her own figurative ghosts to deal with. She has a family she supports but rarely sees, and a recently deceased teacher whose final communication charged her with a seemingly impossible task: find the rest of The Unfinished Prelude, the mysterious piece of music that catapulted her to stardom.
Dec and his best friend Russ, a talented, but complicated medium, offer Annie their help. But when Annie’s quest for the remainder of The Prelude becomes an obsession and it’s clear that Tristan is involved, Dec finds himself increasingly at odds with his plan to leave St. Hilaire. Even worse is the growing tension with Russ who, in trying to help Dec and Annie, begins to embrace dark and potentially life-threatening forces, including an enigmatic and manipulative ghost. 
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They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman | Goodreads

When something is pitched as “One of Us Is Lying with a dash of The Secret History” and “a slick, taut murder mystery” I am just HERE for it. My dark academia soul has needs.

In Gold Coast, Long Island, everything from the expensive downtown shops to the manicured beaches, to the pressed uniforms of Jill Newman and her friends, looks perfect. But as Jill found out three years ago, nothing is as it seems.
Freshman year Jill’s best friend, the brilliant, dazzling Shaila Arnold, was killed by her boyfriend. After that dark night on the beach, Graham confessed, the case was closed, and Jill tried to move on.
Now, it’s Jill’s senior year and she’s determined to make it her best yet. After all, she’s a senior and a Player–a member of Gold Coast Prep’s exclusive, not-so-secret secret society. Senior Players have the best parties, highest grades and the admiration of the entire school. This is going to be Jill’s year. She’s sure of it.
But when Jill starts getting texts proclaiming Graham’s innocence, her dreams of the perfect senior year start to crumble. If Graham didn’t kill Shaila, who did? Jill vows to find out, but digging deeper could mean putting her friendships, and her future, in jeopardy.  
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Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar | Goodreads

I am just instantly caught by the pitch of “blends Neil Gaiman’s Stardust and a breathtaking landscape of Hindu mythology into a radiant contemporary fantasy” 😩✨💛 I have needed this all my life. Plus it’s #ownvoices!

The daughter of a star and a mortal, Sheetal is used to keeping secrets. Pretending to be “normal.” But when an accidental flare of her starfire puts her human father in the hospital, Sheetal needs a full star’s help to heal him. A star like her mother, who returned to the sky long ago.
Sheetal’s quest to save her father will take her to a celestial court of shining wonders and dark shadows, where she must take the stage as her family’s champion in a competition to decide the next ruling house of the heavens–and win, or risk never returning to Earth at all.
Brimming with celestial intrigue, this sparkling YA debut is perfect for fans of Roshani Chokshi and Laini Taylor.  
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The Memory of Souls (#3) by Jenn Lyons | Goodreads

I honestly am DYING for this book!! It’s one of my most anticipated of the year after I fell in love with book 1 (The Ruin of Kings) and developed a deep and loving obsession 🥰This is adult fantasy too, by the way! It’s going to be everything I need and I am going to softly scream my way through 600 pages.

What if you’re the one who has to die?
Now that the city of Atrine has been destroyed and Relos Var’s plan to free the dark god Vol Karoth has been revealed—the end of the world is closer than ever.
To buy time for humanity, Kihrin, Janel, and Thurvishar must convince the king of the Manol vané to perform an ancient ritual that will strip the vané of their immortality—a ritual that certain vané will do anything to prevent. Including assassinating the ones bringing the news.
Worse, Kihrin must come to terms with the horrifying possibility that his connection to Vol Karoth is steadily growing in strength. How can Kihrin hope to save anyone when he might turn out to be the greatest threat of them all? 
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Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger | Goodreads

I actually have read very very little Indigenous American books, so I really want to read this one! It sounds beautiful and magical and I love the alternate reality bend to it?! Plus — murder mystery. PLUS it has illustrations!!

Imagine an America very similar to our own. It’s got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream.
There are some differences. This America been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not. Some of these forces are charmingly everyday, like the ability to make an orb of light appear or travel across the world through rings of fungi. But other forces are less charming and should never see the light of day.
Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.  
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Vicious Spirits (#2) by Kat Cho | Goodreads

This is the sequel to Wicked Fox which I adored last year and am just so excited for more!! The first book was so angsty but also fun but also full of banter 🥰basically my perfect paranormal.  This is a companion novel though, so same world but different main characters.

As Vicious Spirits begins, Miyoung and Jihoon are picking up the pieces of their broken lives following the deaths of Miyoung’s mother, Yena, and Jihoon’s grandmother. With the support of their friend Somin, and their frenemy, Junu, they might just have a shot at normalcy. But Miyoung is getting sicker and sicker by the day and her friends don’t know how to save her. With few options remaining, Junu has an idea but it might require the ultimate sacrifice and, let’s be honest, Junu isn’t known for his “generosity.” Meanwhile, the events at the end of Wicked Fox have upended the forces that govern life and death and there are supernatural entities lurking in the background that will stop at nothing to right their world.  
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Darius the Great Deserves Better (#2) by Adib Khorram | Goodreads

Another sequel!! Darius The Great Is Not Okay was a total favourite last year too, with Darius and his family travelling to Iran to meet family properly, and Darius figuring out friendship, diaspora and his depression 🥺I really loved the rep too! And I think this one will explore more of his queer journey.

Darius Kellner is having a bit of a year. Since his trip to Iran this past spring, a lot has changed. He’s getting along with his dad, and his best friend Sohrab is only a Skype call away. Between his first boyfriend, Landon, his varsity soccer practices, and his internship at his favorite tea shop, Darius is feeling pretty okay. Like he finally knows what it means to be Darius Kellner.
Then, of course, everything changes. Darius’s grandmothers are in town for a long visit while his dad is gone on business, and Darius isn’t sure whether they even like him. The internship isn’t what Darius thought it would be, and now he doesn’t know about turning tea into his career. He was sure he liked Landon, but when he starts hanging out with Chip–soccer teammate and best friend of Trent Bolger, epic bully–well, he’s just not so sure about Landon anymore, either.
Darius thought he knew exactly who he was and what he wanted, but maybe he was wrong. Maybe he deserves better.
In this companion to the award-winning Darius the Great Is Not Okay, Darius suddenly has it all: a boyfriend, an internship, a spot on the soccer team. It’s everything he’s ever wanted–but what if he deserves better? 
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Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles | Goodreads

I’ve heard that this is a Phantom fo the Opera Retelling and that’s all I need to know to want it!! Plus it’s giving me distinct Caraval vibes 🥰 I also haven’t read enough Filipino authors so I am excited for this.

In a city covered in ice and ruin, a group of magicians face off in a daring game of magical feats to find the next headliner of the Conquering Circus, only to find themselves under the threat of an unseen danger striking behind the scenes.
As each act becomes more and more risky and the number of missing magicians piles up, three are forced to reckon with their secrets before the darkness comes for them next.
The Star: Kallia, a powerful showgirl out to prove she’s the best no matter the cost
The Master: Jack, the enigmatic keeper of the club, and more than one lie told
The Magician: Demarco, the brooding judge with a dark past he can no longer hide
Where Dreams Descend is the startling and romantic first book in Janella Angeles’ debut Kingdom of Cards fantasy duology where magic is both celebrated and feared, and no heart is left unscathed. 
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Honourable mentions…

Dear Justyce (#2) by Nic Stone | Goodreads

A long awaited sequel to Dear Martin!! It’s talking about discrimination and the American justice and prison system, also told in letters again.

Shortly after teenager Quan enters a not guilty plea for the shooting death of a police officer, he is placed in a holding cell to await trial. Through a series of flashbacks and letters to Justyce, the protagonist of Dear Martin, Quan’s story unravels.
From a troubled childhood and bad timing to a coerced confession and prejudiced police work, Nic Stone’s newest novel takes an unflinching look at the flawed practices and ideologies that discriminate against African American boys and minorities in the American justice system.
In the stunning and hard-hitting sequel to the New York Times bestseller Dear Martin, incarcerated teen Quan writes letters to Justyce about his experiences in the American prison system.  
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Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson | Goodreads

Basically if Tiffany D. Jackson writes it — I want it. Immediately. I rate all her books 5-stars and they throw me off a cliff every time?! She is such an excellent writer and her concepts are!! incredible!! I cannot stop fangirling!

Korey Fields is dead.
When Enchanted Jones wakes with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night, no one—the police and Korey’s fans included—has more questions than she does. All she really knows is that this isn’t how things are supposed to be. Korey was Enchanted’s ticket to stardom.
Before there was a dead body, Enchanted was an aspiring singer, struggling with her tight knit family’s recent move to the suburbs while trying to find her place as the lone Black girl in high school. But then legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots her at an audition. And suddenly her dream of being a professional singer takes flight.
Enchanted is dazzled by Korey’s luxurious life but soon her dream turns into a nightmare. Behind Korey’s charm and star power hides a dark side, one that wants to control her every move, with rage and consequences. Except now he’s dead and the police are at the door. Who killed Korey Fields?
All signs point to Enchanted. 
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These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever | Goodreads

My weakness for Dark Academia knows no end alright 😩👌🏻this one promises to be super dark (it’s also adult) and it’s pitched as a queer and obsessive The Secret History — so basically yes and I need it.

When Paul and Julian meet as university freshmen in early 1970s Pittsburgh, they are immediately drawn to one another. A talented artist, Paul is sensitive and agonizingly insecure, incomprehensible to his working-class family, and desolate with grief over his father’s recent death.
Paul sees the wealthy, effortlessly charming Julian as his sole intellectual equal—an ally against the conventional world he finds so suffocating. He idolizes his friend for his magnetic confidence. But as charismatic as he can choose to be, Julian is also volatile and capriciously cruel. And admiration isn’t the same as trust.
As their friendship spirals into an all-consuming intimacy, Paul is desperate to protect their precarious bond, even as it becomes clear that pressures from the outside world are nothing compared with the brutality they are capable of inflicting on one another. Separation is out of the question. But as their orbit compresses and their grip on one another tightens, they are drawn to an act of irrevocable violence that will force the young men to confront a shattering truth at the core of their relationship.
Exquisitely plotted, unfolding with a propulsive ferocity, These Violent Delights is a novel of escalating dread and an excavation of the unsettling depths of human desire.  
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A Deadly Education by Namoi Novik | Goodreads

SEE!! DARK ACADEMIA. I honestly am deprived and need so so much more. This one is more of a magic school where you have to fight to survive, let alone graduate. And tbh I am here for that kind of stress.

Lesson One of the Scholomance
Learning has never been this deadly
A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets. There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere. El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students.  
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Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas | Goodreads

I have this preordered and have been excited for ages!! Latinx trans #ownvoices rep with GHOSTS (I tell you I really love ghosts) and it just sounds both fun and heart twisting and good 🥺✨I cannot spell CEMETERY ever though.

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.
However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie up some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.  
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Fable by Adrienne Young | Goodreads

I know I’m behind, but I’ve not read any of this author yet and I was luckily given an eARC of this so I am EXCITED. The cover is also super stunning 😍and I just love the title! It captivated me.

As the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home seventeen-year-old Fable has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father.
But her father’s rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him and Fable soon finds that West isn’t who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they’re going to stay alive.
Welcome to a world made dangerous by the sea and by those who wish to profit from it. Where a young girl must find her place and her family while trying to survive in a world built for men. 
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None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney | Goodreads

I’m particularly excited for this because it’s an Australian author who’s made it to the US!!!! And her previous thrillers were all phenomenal. (Particularly the genderbent Sherlock trilogy 😙). I also suddenly love thrillers?! This cover is not Great though. 😂

In 1982, two teenagers—serial killer survivor Emma Lewis and US Marshal candidate Travis Bell—are recruited by the FBI to interview convicted juvenile killers and provide insight and advice on cold cases. From the start, Emma and Travis develop a quick friendship, gaining information from juvenile murderers that even the FBI can’t crack. But when the team is called in to give advice on an active case—a serial killer who exclusively hunts teenagers—things begin to unravel. Working against the clock, they must turn to one of the country’s most notorious incarcerated murderers for help: teenage sociopath Simon Gutmunsson.
Despite Travis’s objections, Emma becomes the conduit between Simon and the FBI team. But while Simon seems to be giving them the information they need to save lives, he’s an expert manipulator playing a very long game…and he has his sights set on Emma. 
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Lazarus by Maryanne Melloan Woods | Goodreads

I just kind of need this book after the pitch of “Margo and Hank have a profoundly deep relationship; the only hitch is that Hank has been dead for two months.” I neeeed more ghost stories! Plus it’s a murder mystery?! They are a team of detectives!

Margo and Hank are two teens in tiny, god-forsaken Lazarus, Nebraska. They have a profoundly deep relationship; the only hitch is that Hank has been dead for two months. Somehow he has remained in limbo— no doubt due to the sheer force of their love, and unfinished work to be done.
When the pair get tangled up investigating the latest local murder— with Margo doing the everyday detective work and the late Hank spying on suspects unseen—they discover nothing and no one in Lazarus are as they seem. The investigation becomes more dangerous, and it’s up to Hank to protect Margo—as much as a ghost-bodyguard-boyfriend can. While clinging to each other, the teens uncover the sinister secrets of the people they’ve known all their lives, reopen the cold case of Margo’s mother’s death, and learn how to face their past—and how to move on.  
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Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam | Goodreads

I’ve read two books by Ibi Zoboi and loved them so really keen for her next work! Plus #BlackLivesMatter books are always incredibly needed, and this one looks like it’s going to take a good look racial profiling. Also told in verse!

Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white.
Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it?
With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth, in a system designed to strip him of both. 
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The Lost Book Of The White (#2) by Cassandra Clare | Goodreads

You know my undying love for Shadowhunters!! Although I confess Chain of Gold wasn’t so much for me this year but I LOVED the Red Scrolls of Magic so I cannot wait for the sequel. Softly dying that they changed the covers though so this won’t match mine. 💀

Life is good for Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood. They’re living together in a fabulous loft, their warlock son, Max, has started learning to walk, and the streets of New York are peaceful and quiet—as peaceful and quiet as they ever are, anyway.
Until the night that two old acquaintances break into Magnus’s apartment and steal the powerful Book of the White. Now Magnus and Alec will have to drop everything to get it back. They need to follow the thieves to Shanghai, they need to call some backup to accompany them, and they need a babysitter.
Also, someone has stabbed Magnus with a strange magical weapon and the wound is glowing, so they have that to worry about too.
Fortunately, their backup consists of Clary, Jace, Isabelle, and newly minted Shadowhunter Simon. In Shanghai, they learn that a much darker threat awaits them. Magnus’s magic is growing unstable, and if they can’t stop the demons flooding into the city, they might have to follow them all the way back to the source—to the very realm of the dead. Can they stop the threat to the world? Will they make it back home before their kid completely wears out Alec’s mom? 
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Honourable mentions…

We Were Restless things by Cole Nagamatsu | Goodreads

I’ve seen this pitched as for fans of Maggie Stiefvater and that, plus this cover, is all you need to sell me thank you.

Last summer, Link Miller drowned on dry land in the woods, miles away from the nearest body of water. His death was ruled a strange accident, and in the months since, his friends and family have struggled to make sense of it. But Link’s close friend Noemi Amato knows the truth: Link drowned in an impossible lake that only she can find. And what’s more, someone claiming to be Link has been contacting her, warning Noemi to stay out of the forest.

As these secrets become too heavy for Noemi to shoulder on her own, she turns to Jonas, her new housemate, and Amberlyn, Link’s younger sister. All three are trying to find their place—and together, they start to unravel the truth: about themselves, about the world, and about what happened to Link.

Unfolding over a year and told through multiple POVs and a dream journal, We Were Restless Things explores the ways society shapes our reality, how we can learn to love ourselves and others, and the incredible power of our own desires.

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Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco | Goodreads

I am half here for the cover, but also!! I did like Stalking Jack the Ripper (guiltily, I haven’t read the rest of the series yet) and I think historical fantasy with murder mystery aspects are fantastic.

Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe – witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family’s renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin…desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister’s killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.
Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia’s side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women’s murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems…
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This Is All Your Fault by Aminah Mae Safi | Goodreads

If it’s gay and about saving an indie bookstore, then obviously it is the kind of quality content I look for in my life. It’s also set over the course of ONE day, so those kind of books are pretty compelling and fast!

Set over the course of one day, this smart and voice-driven YA novel follows three young women determined to save their indie bookstore.
Rinn Olivera is finally going to tell her longtime crush AJ that she’s in love with him.
Daniella Korres writes poetry for her own account, but nobody knows it’s her.
Imogen Azar is just trying to make it through the day.
When Rinn, Daniella, and Imogen clock into work at Wild Nights Bookstore on the first day of summer, they’re expecting the hours to drift by the way they always do. Instead, they have to deal with the news that the bookstore is closing. Before the day is out, there’ll be shaved heads, a diva author, and a very large shipment of Air Jordans to contend with.
And it will take all three of them working together if they have any chance to save Wild Nights Bookstore.
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Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston | Goodreads

Fairy tales with monsters and dark woods?! I love this premise 😭I always have, so this one is an immediate must-read for me. I also love that this author writes in so many genres! A talent.

Cerys is safe in the kingdom of Aloriya.
Here there are no droughts, disease, or famine, and peace is everlasting. It has been this way for hundreds of years, since the first king made a bargain with the Lady who ruled the forest that borders the kingdom. But as Aloriya prospered, the woods grew dark, cursed, and forbidden. Cerys knows this all too well: when she was young, she barely escaped as the woods killed her friends and her mother. Now Cerys carries a small bit of the curse—the magic—in her blood, a reminder of the day she lost everything. The most danger she faces now, as a gardener’s daughter, is the annoying fox who stalks the royal gardens and won’t leave her alone.
As a new queen is crowned, however, things long hidden in the woods descend on the kingdom itself. Cerys is forced on the run, her only companions the small fox from the garden, a strange and powerful bear, and the magic in her veins. It’s up to her to find the legendary Lady of the Wilds and beg for a way to save her home. But the road is darker and more dangerous than she knows, and as secrets from the past are uncovered amid the teeth and roots of the forest, it’s going to take everything she has just to survive.
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Beyond the Ruby Veil by Mara Fitzgerald | Goodreads

This is pitched as “a queer YA perfect for fans of Wicked Saints” so call me INTRIGUED. I also won’t lie. I am here for this cover.

Emanuela Ragno always gets what she wants. With her daring mind and socialite schemes, she refuses to be the demure young lady everyone wants her to be. In her most ambitious move yet, she’s about to marry Alessandro Morandi, her childhood best friend and the heir to the wealthiest house in Occhia. Emanuela doesn’t care that she and her groom are both gay, because she doesn’t want a love match. She wants power, and through Ale, she’ll have it all.
But Emanuela has a secret that could shatter her plans. In the city of Occhia, the only source of water is the watercrea, a mysterious being who uses magic to make water from blood. When their first bruise-like omen appears on their skin, all Occhians must surrender themselves to the watercrea to be drained of life. Everyone throughout history has given themselves up for the greater good. Everyone except Emanuela. She’s kept the tiny omen on her hip out of sight for years.
When the watercrea exposes Emanuela during her wedding ceremony and takes her to be sacrificed, Emanuela fights back…and kills her. Now Occhia has no one to make their water and no idea how to get more. In a race against time, Emanuela and Ale must travel through the mysterious, blood-red veil that surrounds their city to uncover the secrets of the watercrea’s magic and find a way to save their people-no matter what it takes.
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Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz | Goodreads

An #ownvoices Puerto Rican fantasy with DRAGONS!! That’s all we ever really needed okay 😭💛 I really miss dragons in books (they are not cliches, they are perfect 🤨🙌🏻) so hanging out for this.

Lana Torres has always preferred dragons to people. In a few weeks, sixteen countries will compete in the Blazewrath World Cup, a tournament where dragons and their riders fight for glory in a dangerous relay. Lana longs to represent her native Puerto Rico in their first ever World Cup appearance, and when Puerto Rico’s Runner—the only player without a dragon steed—is kicked off the team, she’s given the chance.
But when she discovers that a former Blazewrath superstar has teamed up with the Sire—a legendary dragon who’s cursed into human form—the safety of the Cup is jeopardized. The pair are burning down dragon sanctuaries around the world and refuse to stop unless the Cup gets cancelled. All Lana wanted was to represent her country. Now, to do that, she’ll have to navigate an international conspiracy that’s deadlier than her beloved sport.
Experience the World Cup with dragons in this debut fantasy, set in an alternate contemporary world, in which riders and their steeds compete in an international sports tournament.
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The Cuban Girl’s Guide To Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey | Goodreads

Basically food 🥺💛I really want more foodie YA and this is here for it. Plus I think it’ll have an enemies-to-lovers sort of romance and it’s #ownvoices for Cuban rep!

Teenage master of Cuban cuisine, Lila Reyes, is eager to inherit her family’s Miami bakery along with her sister, Pilar. But between spring and graduation, Lila’s abuela dies, her best friend abandons her, and her long-time boyfriend dumps her. Fearing Lila’s emotional health, her parents defy her wishes and entrust her summer to family and their Winchester, England inn. Even though she’s given a space to cook at the inn, she longs for Miami, the seat of her Cuban roots. Being a Miami Cuban baker is her glorified past and destined future, forged by years of training by her loving abuela.
Days into her stay, Orion Maxwell barges into Lila’s inn kitchen with a delivery from his family’s tea shop. A nuisance at first, opposite ingredients soon learn to blend. Orion befriends Lila, introducing her to his mates and devouring her food––comida Cubana.
Orion entertains her with his mental collection of superstitions and sweeps her onto his vintage motorbike. He wraps cold, underdressed Lila in his wool cardigan and becomes her personal tour guide. His mum’s early-onset (FTD) Dementia gives Orion a unique outlook––he never asks too much of the world, accepting what he can’t control. Lila soon discovers this British boy brings empathy to her loss because he’s living his own.
Before long, Lila can’t control the route of her own heart as she begins to fall for more than a new love. England has charmed her. And a special opportunity in London tempts her. As her return ticket looms, Lila feels impossibly caught between two flags. Hearts aren’t supposed to split like this––between a beautiful boy and a beautiful family. Between exploring an uncharted future in a rich new place, and honoring Abuela’s treasured legacy.
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I Hope You’re Listening by Tom Ryan | Goodreads

More thrillers 👀I am developing a love for them. Also I really adored this author’s last book (Keep This To Yourself) so I’m just expecting more of that quality and thrill!

In her small town, seventeen year-old Delia “Dee” Skinner is known as the girl who wasn’t taken. Ten years ago, she witnessed the abduction of her best friend, Sibby. And though she told the police everything she remembered, it wasn’t enough. Sibby was never seen again.At night, Dee deals with her guilt by becoming someone else: the Seeker, the voice behind the popular true crime podcast Radio Silent, which features missing persons cases and works with online sleuths to solve them. Nobody knows Dee’s the Seeker, and she plans to keep it that way.When another little girl goes missing, and the case is linked to Sibby’s disappearance, Dee has a chance to get answers, with the help of her virtual detectives and the intriguing new girl at school. But how much is she willing to reveal about herself in order to uncover the truth? Dee’s about to find out what’s really at stake in unraveling the mystery of the little girls who vanished.
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Honourable mentions…

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong | Goodreads

It’s pitched as “an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths” and omgggg do I need it. Plus I’ve seen people raving about it already…and I might have preordered. 😌#ownvoices Chinese rep!

The year is 1926, and Shanghai hums to the tune of debauchery.
A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.
But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.
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Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Cho | Goodreads

Hires a fake!! Boyfriend!! I do think this one will be fun, plus it’s #ownvoices and I really liked the author’s previous book!

Chloe Wang is nervous to introduce her parents to her boyfriend, because the truth is, she hasn’t met him yet either. She hired him from Rent for Your ’Rents, a company specializing in providing fake boyfriends trained to impress even the most traditional Asian parents.
Drew Chan’s passion is art, but after his parents cut him off for dropping out of college to pursue his dreams, he became a Rent for Your ’Rents employee to keep a roof over his head. Luckily, learning protocols like “Type C parents prefer quiet, kind, zero-PDA gestures” comes naturally to him.
When Chloe rents Drew, the mission is simple: convince her parents fake Drew is worthy of their approval so they’ll stop pressuring her to accept a proposal from Hongbo, the wealthiest (and slimiest) young bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community.
But when Chloe starts to fall for the real Drew—who, unlike his fake persona, is definitely not ’rent-worthy—her carefully curated life begins to unravel. Can she figure out what she wants before she loses everything?
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets The Farewell in this incisive romantic comedy about a college student who hires a fake boyfriend to appease her traditional Taiwanese parents, to disastrous results, from the acclaimed author of American Panda. 
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How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (#3.5) by Holly Black | Goodreads

OKAY BUT IT’S MORE CARDAN BOOKS AND I CAN’T STOP BEING SO SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye 😭💛and here we get MORE. Also it’s ILLUSTRATED.

An illustrated addition to the New York Times bestselling Folk of Air trilogy, that started with The Cruel Prince, from award-winning author Holly Black.
An irresistible return to the captivating world of Elfhame.
Once upon a time, there was a boy with a wicked tongue.
Before he was a cruel prince or a wicked king, he was a faerie child with a heart of stone . #1 New York Times bestselling author, Holly Black reveals a deeper look into the dramatic life of Elfhame’s enigmatic high king, Cardan. This tale includes delicious details of life before The Cruel Prince, an adventure beyond The Queen of Nothing, and familiar moments from The Folk of the Air trilogy, told wholly from Cardan’s perspective.
This new installment in the Folk of the Air series is a return to the heart-racing romance, danger, humor, and drama that enchanted readers everywhere. Each chapter is paired with lavish and luminous full-color art, making this the perfect collector’s item to be enjoyed by both new audiences and old. 
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Ruinsong by Julia Ember | Goodreads

This is a queer phantom of the opera retelling?! I cannot express how much I need this right now. I’ve only read one novella by this author, so I’d love to read more!

Her voice was her prison…
Now it’s her weapon.
In a world where magic is sung, a powerful mage named Cadence has been forced to torture her country’s disgraced nobility at her ruthless queen’s bidding.
But when she is reunited with her childhood friend, a noblewoman with ties to the underground rebellion, she must finally make a choice: Take a stand to free their country from oppression, or follow in the queen’s footsteps and become a monster herself. 
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The Cousins by Karen M. McManus | Goodreads

I’m absolutely obsessed by her last two books so this is just INSTA NEED. I suppose I should look at the blurb briefly but like 😌👌🏻I love that feeling when you have an author you just will read on their name alone.

Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they’ve never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they’re surprised . . . and curious.
Their parents are all clear on one point–not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother’s good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it’s immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious–and dark–their family’s past is.
The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn’t over–and this summer, the cousins will learn everything. 
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Master Of One by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett | Goodreads

This has A HEIST!! I repeat A HEIST!! And the pitch is “Sinister sorcery. Gallows humor. A queer romance so glorious it could be right out of fae legend itself” so hello I have been sold so completely.

Rags is a thief—an excellent one. He’s stolen into noble’s coffers, picked soldier’s pockets, and even liberated a ring or two off the fingers of passersby. Until he’s caught by the Queensguard and forced to find an ancient fae relic for a sadistic royal sorcerer.
But Rags could never have guessed this “relic” would actually be a fae himself—a distractingly handsome, annoyingly perfect, ancient fae prince called Shining Talon. Good thing Rags can think on his toes, because things just get stranger from there…
With the heist and intrigue of Six of Crows and the dark fairy tale feel of The Cruel Prince, this young adult fantasy debut will have readers rooting for a pair of reluctant heroes as they take on a world-ending fae prophecy, a malicious royal plot, and, most dangerously of all, their feelings for each other.  
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A Curse of Roses by Diana Pinguicha | Goodreads

This is a Portuguese historical fantasy so consider me thoroughly intrigued. And it seems it’ll have a lot of flower content which is my aesthetic!

With just one touch, bread turns into roses. With just one bite, cheese turns into lilies.
There’s a famine plaguing the land, and Princess Yzabel is wasting food simply by trying to eat. Before she can even swallow, her magic—her curse—has turned her meal into a bouquet. She’s on the verge of starving, which only reminds her that the people of Portugal have been enduring the same pain.
If only it were possible to reverse her magic. Then she could turn flowers…into food.
Fatyan, a beautiful Enchanted Moura, is the only one who can help. But she is trapped by magical binds. She can teach Yzabel how to control her curse—if Yzabel sets her free with a kiss.
As the King of Portugal’s betrothed, Yzabel would be committing treason, but what good is a king if his country has starved to death?
With just one kiss, Fatyan is set free. And with just one kiss, Yzabel is yearning for more.
She’d sought out Fatyan to help her save the people. Now, loving her could mean Yzabel’s destruction.
Based on Portuguese legend, this #OwnVoices historical fantasy is an epic tale of mystery, magic, and making the impossible choice between love and duty… 
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tell me which ones you’re most excited for!

 

Disability Pride Month | 10 YA Books With Disabled Characters You Need To Read!!

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Since July is Disability Pride Month and it’s almost over…I need to leave you with some recommendations!

Did I mean to write this post much, much earlier in the month? Why yes. But look 😌😚 it’s here now and I do like to claim that quote on how a wizard is never late, but arrives precisely when they mean to (credits to Gandalf, who makes some good points).

Anyway! I’m really excited to talk about some of my favourite books with disabled characters!! Earlier this month I wrote a post on 5 Things I Want To See More Of In Disabled YA Books, and I poured a lot into that post, so thank you so much to everyone who read and commented! My advocacy posts aren’t perfect and I definitely aim to learn more — being disabled is such a vastly different thing to different people and it’s hard to succinctly talk about it and encompass all angles. Plus I am more knowledgable in neurodiversity and autism. But I am trying to learn more!!!

Before we go on though…a quick list…

Things To Remember (When It Comes to Disabled Books)

  • #ownvoices books SHOULD be supported and recommended first and foremost!! Of course abled authors can write good rep 🥰 but the fact that disabled authors are rarer in YA is an issue that needs fixing.
  • When I talk about “disability pride” it absolutely does not erase disability suffering and struggles.
  • We absolutely need books about disability suffering!! But I want to see #ownvoices authors write these.
  • Please don’t recommend me books where the disabled character dies while I’m talking about disabled pride. (Especially if that book is by an abled author. 😑)
  • I think it’s fair to point out that the book community doesn’t support disabled YA like they do other diverse books and would love if we all worked on this!!
  • Two people can have the same condition and one may consider themselves disabled, one might not.  We should respect both!
  • We need to be careful about language we use to talk about disabilities in books. Things like “she overcame her disability” and “he was amazing despite being disabled” and “this disabled character really inspired me for still doing cool stuff” ARE all really abled. It’s like you really can’t think of anything worse than being disabled and 🥴 let’s stop with that. Disabilities are not a flaw. Just say: “I loved the epic stuff this disabled character did!”

Other Posts You Might Like

➸ 10 Things I Want To See More of In YA Books About Mental Health
➸ How To Tell If A Book Has Good Autism Rep
➸ How To Keep Supporting Diverse Books (All The Time!)
➸ YA Books About Anxiety

…Sick Kids In Love by Hannah Moskowitz

This was one of my favourite reads of last year just for being SO funny, soft, relatable, aching and lonely and loving — and absolutely crammed full of incredible disability rep. The hard parts. The wonderful parts. (It’s also #Ownvoices and you can just TELL because it really unpacks a lot of everyday ableism too.) Isabel has rheumatoid arthritis and Sasha has Gaucher Disease. They’re also both Jewish! There’s a lot of pain in this book, and it’s not romanticised. 😭💛The whole thing hurts, but it also is full of love.

 

…A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Bernard

This is narrated by Steffi who has selective mutism and ends up partnered with the Deaf boy at school since they both know BSL (British Sign Language). Their quiet love story just filled my whole heart. As far as I know, it’s not #ownvoices for either, but there’s such care and respect in both characters. I really related to Steffi’s severe anxiety too 😭It’s also nice because it’s full of romantic “firsts” but not conventionally. Steffi and Rhys are flawed, but their disabilities aren’t their flaw.

 

…A List of Cages by Robin Roe

Okay this one will leave you BROKEN on the floor and as you cry softly into your hands, you will absolutely thank me for recommending this book to you. It’s about two boys who were once foster brothers and find each other again…and how their lives basically unravel. Adam has ADHD and Julian has dyslexia and PTSD. There’s a lot of trauma and darkness here, but also unlikely friendship and just two boys trying to fit into a world that rejects them.

 

…Brave Enough by Kati Gardner

I’m going to say this one wasn’t totally for me stylistically, buuuut I still want to recommend it because it’s #ownvoices for amputee rep and that’s SO rare in YA and this needs to be celebrated! The story follows Cason as she goes from upcoming amazing ballerina to an amputee. The love interest is a cancer survivor but is now dealing with a drug addiction. It also deeply unpacks what it is to go from living a full able-bodied life to not having that anymore. The pain and loss of it, and how to find yourself again.

 

…A Taxonomy of Love by Rachael Allen

This one is about Spencer who has Tourette’s! I can’t vouch for the rep and I don’t think it’s #ownvoices, but it did feel really respectful and realistic, showing the highs and lows of managing severe Tourette’s. It starts off when Spencer is pretty young and then grows up with him as he has an on-and-off-again pining romance with the girl next door. It’s been ages since I’ve read it and my brain is a SIEVE but I sit here and remember the part where Spencer tried a new medication and the side effects gave him such bad depression with suicide tendencies and he was just crying as his step-mother held him and held him. 😭That scene will forever stay with me. JAfdklsad read this one.

 

…The Art Of Not Feeling by Laura Tims

Samantha went through a horrific car accident and now uses crutches to walk and is in excruciating pain all the time. She meets Eliot who is literally her opposite — he can’t feel pain AT ALL. Which you don’t think of as a disability (wouldn’t it be lucky to not feel pain?!) but it is. Pain is a defence against us hurting ourselves to death?! And Eliot doesn’t have that. (I also lowkey headcanon him as autistic 🥰😚because I can.) But this book!! It’s also FUNNY. You know that moment when banter and quips just light up your whole world? Sam and Eliot had that connection. It’s so good and SO underrated.

 

…Meet Me In Outer Space by Melinda Grace

This is an #ownvoices story about auditory processing disorder and I’ve honestly never read this in any other book! I was falling out of my socks with excitement to read this. It’s also set in college, so sitting in that nice upper-YA pocket that doesn’t get enough attention either. But but anyway!! This one has a lot of learning to self advocate for yourself. Because “invisible disabilities” often get ignored or the person is expected to just deal anyway.

 

…When My Heart Joins The Thousand by A.J. Steiger

This is #ownvoices for autism rep and the love interest has a severe disability where his bones are so fragile they’ll break all the time. He walks with a cane too. It’s also Upper-YA because they’re both teens but figuring out how to be adults, how to support themselves, how to fit into a world that is too harsh and fast and not understanding. I kind of just 😭love this book and softly want to support these two kids as they do their best.

 

…Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali

This is such a favourite of mine! It’s full of such incredible diversity rep 😍 It’s #ownvoices for Muslim and POC characters, and Adam has just been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (I don’t believe that part is OV). He’s figuring out treatments, but also how to tell his family, since his mother died from this and he doesn’t want to put his dad and sister through that again. Adam is the most loyal and soft and kind boy you will ever see 😭 Zayneb also narrates half the book and I LOVED HER; her refusal to be quiet and take discrimination, and her love of her family and culture and life. These two. Love them.

 

…The Boy Who Steals Houses by meeeee

You know I always feel guilty adding my books to lists. What is this selfish self-promo!! I softly yell to myself. But then… look if I spent 10 years trying to get published, I should be able to talk about my book on my blog when it is #ownvoices for autism and severe anxiety rep and 😭 I’m proud it got published when so many times I thought it wouldn’t. So here it is! It features two autistic brothers (in different places on the spectrum) and it’s so deeply about unconditional love and found-family and how abuse can shape you. It is even more, deeply, about waffles. Truly a quality piece of book.

 

tell me some books you love with disability rep!! I have read so few this year so I really need more recs! 💛